The Not So Ordinary Life Of Hazel Greene
by WelshGirl4Life
Summary: After waking up one day surrounded by big, hairy Vikings, it was clear to Hazel Greene that her life was definitely about to change. Especially since she couldn't quite remember how she found herself surrounded by big, hairy Vikings. Deciding to remain with the tribe, Hazel trained to be a healer, but found her new, already strange life, become stranger still. Hiccup/OC
1. Prologue

**A/N - I do not own How To Train Your Dragon**

* * *

They found me out in the woods. Behind a pile of rocks, unconscious, and bleeding from the head. As a stranger to them in more ways than one, I was brought to the chief's house instead of the healer's hut so that the chief could keep a close eye on me. In case I, a 13 year old girl who had absolutely no idea where he was, would be a danger to the tribe. You could say whatever you wanted about Vikings, but when it came down to it, they were a protective bunch, and would do just about anything to protect their own.

Which explained the interrogation I endured when I woke up two days after being found. And the glares that followed me around whenever I left the hut. And the guard that refused to leave my side unless ordered away by the chief. It wouldn't have been so bad, except Spitelout was a creepy guy. And his son Snotlout was creepy on a completely different level, and sometimes I didn't know whether to laugh at him, or punch him.

Besides Snotlout, I only met one other kid my age. And that was Hiccup, the chief's son. You would think that someone with a father called 'Stoick the Vast' would be as equally impressive. But Hiccup was, well, Hiccup. Something the rest of the tribe liked to remind him of. He wasn't as big, muscular, or as good as the rest of the Vikings. He, in their eyes, couldn't protect the tribe, and believed in the future he would become the most useless chief in the history of Berk. That's what they called him. "Useless". I didn't believe that.

In the time it took for me to become friends with him, he had proved hundreds of times he was amazing in the forge. Creating new weapons and war machines that could be used to protect Berk from the numerous attacks it suffered. But in the tribe's eyes, if he couldn't lift the weapons, what use was he?

As the two outcasts of the tribe, it made sense we'd become friends. If only to complain about how unfair the others were. I was given a hut after two weeks of living in the chief's hut. Stoick had finally decided that I wouldn't be problem, and gave me the recently vacated hut at the nearby forests edge so that he and the rest of the tribe could keep an eye on me, but also kept me out of the way. It was small, only enough room for one person to live comfortably. But I was happy with it. It still felt weird that I was living alone at 13, but I made it work.

The only condition I was given to be allowed to live in the tribe, relatively unbothered, was that I had to help protect Berk from its pests. What pests exactly? Well, this also answers why we need so many weapons. See, most places get stuck with rats, stray cats, wild dogs, the occasional wolves or boars. But not Berk.

No. Berk got stuck with...

Dragons!


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N I don't own How To Train Your Dragon**

* * *

My eyes snapped open when an earthshattering roar ripped through the tribe, followed closely by an explosion that sounded way to close to comfort. I huffed in frustration, and threw myself out of bed, forcing my boots on, before grabbing the bag that hung by the door and running out into the chaos. After surviving a year in Berk, I had managed to convince Gothi, the village elder, and weirdly the only healer, to take me on as an apprentice. I was only able to win her over by pointing out that with me around, she wouldn't have to run around like crazy during dragon raids dodging fire blasts and could just sit back and wait for those with more severe injuries to be sent her way. Although that rarely happened. Vikings were hardy people, and definitely knew how to survive. You had to on Berk.

This was already the seventh raid this month. They were getting bolder. I growled as an older Viking, I forget his name, tried pushing me out of the way as I tried bandaging a particularly nasty scratch mark that would definitely need stitches. I would have insisted that he stay still for me to fix that, but I had learnt early on that unless a limb was falling off, a Viking would rush straight back into battle no matter what the healer said.

The Viking gave a loud battle cry when I finally let him go, his battle axe raised above his head as he charged towards Deadly Nadder that had just got his claws on a startled sheep. I was pushed to the ground as two twins rushed past me, whooping in excitement as they dodged dragons, throwing discarded weapons whenever they got close enough, carrying a bucket of water each as they made their way to the nearest burning building.

I thought about shouting after them, but Ruffnut and Tuffnut rarely listened to anyone, and instead settled for glaring at their retreating backs. A hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me to my feet roughly. I was greeted by the cold, blue eyes of Astrid Hofferson as she glared down at me. I was, unfortunately, the shortest of our age group.

'Stay out of the way!' She yelled at me. I rolled my eyes, she was always glaring or yelling at me.

'Great idea! Tell the healer to stay away from the Vikings who always get themselves hurt in ridiculous ways, every day, no matter what they do.' To emphasise my point, a nearby Viking cried out in pain as his hair caught on fire. Astrid growled and pushed me away from her.

'Just stay out of the way.' She ran off after the twins before I could say anything, her own bucket of water sloshing along beside her. After taking a second to roll my eyes at the girl again, I ran off myself looking for my next patient.

I had just finished off with a second Viking, this one however, had waiting semi-patiently for me to rub some ointment on a particularly nasty burn on the side of his neck, when I was once again pushed to the ground. This time I cursed as I hit the ground, landing on a stray rock that dug painfully into my back.

'Hazel? Oh gods, I'm so sorry. I didn't see you. Are you okay? Are you hurt?' I relaxed slightly when I realised who had actually been the one to knock me over.

'Hiccup, I'm fine.' I said, grabbing his offered hand to be pulled back onto to my feet. 'Shouldn't you be in the forge?'

'Right. Yes. Don't get too messed up, Berk won't survive without its healer.' He pointed a stern finger at me as he backed away.

'You can't say much. I'm patching you up more than any other Viking.' He smiled teasingly.

'What are you talking about? These dragon's couldn't keep up with me!' I winced as he ducked out of the way of a fireball. That had been almost too close. 'Get to Gobber's now!' I yelled after him. 'You're going to get hurt.'

He saluted before running off. I turned around, making my way towards the most recent blast site just as Hiccup, unfortunately, ran into his father. I winced as I heard Stoick yelling at Hiccup to get back inside.

I shook my head, clearing it of all thoughts that weren't connected to work. I ran ahead, following the path of destruction and the Vikings that naturally followed the creatures causing the destruction. I made sure to stop wherever I was needed. Grabbing buckets of water whenever I could stop to help the other teenagers, and pulling other Vikings out of harm's way whenever necessary.

'Thank ye lass.' One Viking said after I pulled him out of the way of a Monstrous Nightmare's grasp. He patted me on the back as he left in the opposite direction, almost sending me to the ground from the force. I had to grab onto a nearby post to catch myself.

I carried on with my work as the raid went on, thankfully with very few distractions. It was impossible to not get distracted during a dragon raid, sometimes you had to stop and watch a Viking and dragon go toe to toe. While I sometimes didn't agree with how Vikings treated the dragon problem, I couldn't help but admit they were pretty impressive during battle. I didn't get a chance to stop during the raid, and despite the damage done and livestock lost, I was always thankful a raid never lasted more than two hours. By the time a raid was over I was always exhausted from running over every inch of the village, wrestling with stubborn Vikings who were determined to die from infections and blood loss. I was convinced Gothi made me do this as some sort of punishment.

By the time the sun had started to rise, the raid was over and I was given a chance to breathe easy. I wiped a hand across my forehead, brushing away the sweat that had gathered there, then retied my red hair in its simple plait before I had to go running off to see if anyone had any major injuries that Gothi would have to look at herself, and to make sure that they got to their homes safely so that they could be seen to in private.

However, before I could even take two steps, a commotion broke out up near the Great Hall. I frowned, and made my way up to the large crowd that had formed, but when I got there whatever had been happening had finished, and all I could see was Hiccup being led away from the crowd by Gobber.

'What happened?' I gave into my curiosity and decided to ask the passing group of teens before they broke off and went home to prepare for the day.

'Useless says he downed a Night Fury.' Snotlout sniggered. I frowned.

'I thought that'd be good.'

'Come on babe, you can't seriously think Useless could down a dragon, let alone a Night Furry, do you?' Snoutlout burst into loud laughter, the twins and Fishlegs (although more subdued that the other three) following along. Astrid just rolled her eyes. 'Only a real Viking can kill a dragon. I killed my first dragon when I was five!'

'Really?' I wasn't the only sceptical one of the group. Astrid scoffed and crossed her arms, and Fishlegs frowned as though he was trying to remember this happening. 'So why did I see you running from a Gronkle the other night? And screaming at the sight of a Monstrous Nightmare the night before that? And hiding from the Zippleback while it-'

'Those were all battle tactics babe!' Snotlout sputtered while the twins sniggered behind him. Astrid rolled her eyes again and started walking away. Snotlout looked between me and Astrid, before clearly deciding Astrid was the better company and chased after her. 'I had a strategy Astrid! I was trying to lure them-'

I stopped listening. Ruffnut and Tuffnut followed after them, completely ignoring me, while Fishlegs followed behind at a slower pace, giving me a small smile as he passed. Compared to the other four, Fishlegs was the quietest of the group, and preferred knowledge over the brute strength the others tended to favour. I'm pretty sure Fishlegs was one of the few Vikings on Berk who had actually read the book of Dragons more than once, and actually read it cos he wanted to rather than because he had to. He was also one of the few people on Berk who was actually nice to me. We weren't exactly friends, but he actually tried to help me whenever I needed it.

I turned away from the group and looked towards Hiccup and Gobber's figures as they climbed the hill to the chief's house, trying to decide if I was going to follow them or not. My decision came from a little old lady, with a very hard stick and a habit of scaring the living daylights out of me.

'Ow!' I cried, as my mentor wacked me across the head with her too long walking stick. 'What was that for?'

She pointed with her stick towards the dwindling Vikings with a stern look on her.

'You want me to get back to work don't you?' She nodded once, before toddling off in a separate direction to do who knows what. I huffed in frustration before stealing myself to deal with the many, many complaints that were about to be hurled my way.

I caught sight of Astrid's father leaning heavily on his wife as they slowly made their way to their house. I took a deep breath, preparing myself as I watched them argue, Mr. Hofferson occasionally trying to push his wife away as he tried to make out that he could walk on his own. Only to then stumble as he put too much wait on his clearly injured left foot.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

It really had been a long day.

I had spent hours going from house to house, dealing with minor and major injuries alike. It had become a bit of a ritual after every raid, that as soon as the last fire had been put out, Vikings were to return to their homes to wait for Gothi or me to give them the okay to go back to work. If their houses were no longer standing, they were to wait in the Great Hall for us, unless they had a life threatening injury, then they were given their neighbours bed until they could be moved to their own once their house had been fixed.

And of course, since some injuries needed more time to be dealt with than others, it meant we had to deal with angry and impatient Vikings. Spitelout for example, who still treated me like a threat whenever he saw me. I was allowed a small laugh however whenever a Viking made to argue or yell at us, one look from Gothi made them look like little puppies who weren't allowed up onto the furniture with their human. Of course, if I was dealing with someone on my own, it meant I got an earful until I was able to deem someone in good health.

I groaned as I finally sat down for the first time today, a bowl of fish stew in front of me. Before coming to Berk, I hadn't been a massive fan fish, but unless you went up to the Great Hall, you were rarely able to find anything else. And after today, I really didn't feel like sitting amongst the rest of the tribe as they glared at me. You'd think after two years they'd have gotten used to me. But to most of the tribe, I was the charity case. The stranger, with even stranger clothes and habits.

I stirred my stew slowly as I thought about my old home. To the tribe, and even to Hiccup, I pretended that I couldn't remember where I was from, or even how I got here. But that wasn't the complete truth. I knew exactly where I came from, I just didn't know how I ended up unconscious in the woods. Something I had figured out pretty quickly after being found was that trying to explain to a group of Vikings stuck on tradition that I was from a different time, or possibly even a different universe, was definitely an experience I didn't want to live through.

Despite how they felt about me, the tribe did their best to help me fit in. One woman had been kind enough to make me a new outfit so that I wouldn't stand out so much, even going as far as to teach me how to fix any tears I might make. Another taught me the basics of taking care of my home. Gobber whenever he had time, taught me to read and write. I was still learning, and could only just get through the most basic of books by myself, and my grammar and spelling was terrifying to look at some days. But since becoming Gothi's apprentice I didn't have much time to sit down for a lesson with Gobber. However, from Gothi's teaching I was able to identify certain ingredients needed for various ointments and medicine. Mrs. Hofferson, Astrid's mom, even volunteered to teach me to fight, but when both of us realised I wasn't exactly Viking Warrior material I had asked to become a healer instead. At least that way I rarely had to fight.

I took my first mouthful of stew and sighed as warmth spread through me. I had to admit, living alone had made me a pretty good cook. I went to take a second mouthful when my door burst open, startling me so much that my spoon full of stew fell onto my lap, causing me to shoot up to my feet, knocking my knees on the underside of the table as I did so, which ended in my bowl of stew falling to the floor and spilling everywhere.

'Hiccup!' I cried, grabbing a spare piece of cloth in an attempt to dry my leggings. These had been my last clean pair, and I had been putting off doing laundry for the last two weeks. Guess I knew what I was going to be doing tomorrow afternoon.

'Hazel, I did it!' He exclaimed, ignoring the pitiful puddle of stew that now lay on my floor.

'Did what?' I asked, bending down to pick up my bowl. 'And shut the door, I don't want the cold getting in.'

'I caught the Night Fury!' Whatever I had thought he had been about to say, that wasn't it. I hit my head on the underside of the table when I stood up too quickly.

'Can you repeat that?' I asked, rubbing the back of my head as I resurfaced, placing my bowl back onto the table.

'I managed to hit a Night Fury with my, _my,_ invention!' He cried, running a hand through his hair in disbelief as he spun on his feet to shut my door. 'Can you believe it? Me! The tribe's biggest hiccup since, since… Since ever!'

'That's great! Have you told your father?' I finally asked once I had gotten over my surprise, my own excitement building. He had finally been able to do the one thing he had been dreaming of doing since he was kid. And way before the other teens had gotten the chance to.

'About that.' He chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked down at his feet. Refusing to look me in the eyes.

'Hiccup, what did you do?' I asked, narrowing my eyes as I moved to stand directly in front of him. He mumbled something too quiet for me to hear. I frowned and tilted my head. 'Want to try that again?'

'I let it go!' He repeated, his voice loud and clear as he lifted his eyes to meet mine. I blinked once, unable to completely register his words. Hiccup threw his hands up in exasperation. 'Say something Hazel! Please! Tell me how disappointed you are, and how I'm not a real Viking for not killing a dragon when I had the _perfect_ opportunity.'

'So why didn't you?' I finally asked, my brain having caught up to the situation.

'I don't know. Because –' He cut himself of sighing loudly and throwing himself onto a chair. 'Because he reminded me of me. And I just couldn't kill him. Not like that. Not tied up and helpless.'

'You said you let it go?' I asked carefully, dragging a spare chair over and sitting next to him. He nodded, looking away from me once more. 'So why didn't it kill you?' He shrugged, just as clueless as me.

I had been told repeatedly since being trusted enough to go out on my own, that if a dragon ever got you alone and cornered, it would always go for the kill. There were no exceptions. Which was why it was so important that a Viking learnt how to fight so that when the time came, which was almost every day on Berk, they could kill a dragon. Killing a dragon was even a rite of passage, with teenagers training and competing with each other to earn the glory of killing a dragon in front of the entire village.

'You know you're going to have to tell your dad right? That you can't kill a dragon I mean.' I elaborated once I saw him being to panic. He relaxed slightly. But only slightly. Talking to the chief was never easy, even for his son.

'I'd have more luck stealing a boat and just leaving Berk for good.' Hiccup sighed, slumping slightly.

'Yeah, like I'm gonna let you do that. If I'm going to be stuck going to Dragon training I might as well have someone sane nearby to complain to!' Hiccup looked at me as though I had just declared my love for Snotlout.

'You're doing Dragon training?'

'Don't sound so surprised! I happen to be one of Berk's finest warriors! They wouldn't survive without me during the raids.' Hiccup snorted. I tried to keep a straight face, but only managed to stay serious for about two seconds before I burst out laughing. Hiccup following along soon after. 'Okay, so I'm not going to Dragon Training to learn how to kill dragons. Gobber want's me there to patch up anyone who gets hurt.'

'Why can't Gothi do it?' Hiccup asked in confusion. 'She's going to be there to decide who kills the dragon anyway.'

'She's too busy to be there every day. Plus, Gobber seems to think having a healer the same age as the students will make them feel more relaxed or something.' I rolled my eyes.

'He does realise we're Vikings right?' I snorted at his question.

'I pointed that out to him. But he just laughed and walked away.' Hiccup nodded as if he expected that reaction.

It was silent for a long while. Hiccup stared out the window, looking as though he was hoping something would fall from the sky and fix everything for him. Since he didn't seem to be moving anytime soon, I stood up and made myself up another bowl of stew, figuring Hiccup wouldn't want anything himself at the moment, and sat back at the table. I managed to get through half the bowl when Hiccup stood up once more, announcing he had better get home before his dad did.

'You know you're going to have to tell him right?' I pointed my spoon at him, my face serious as he stared at the door. Still looking conflicted.

'I will. Just, not yet.' He sighed, but then turned to look at me pleadingly. 'Can't you do it?' I snorted.

'Firstly, stop looking at me like that, it doesn't work on me. And secondly, you can tell him yourself. He's your father.' He groaned loudly, but opened the door anyway.

'Since you so clearly want to see my head on a spike, I suppose I will go speak to him. But for your sake not mine.' I rolled my eyes for the hundredth time today. He was such a drama queen.

'Go!' He held his hands up in surrender, backing out of the house. 'I'll stop by the forge tomorrow to see how it went.'

He yelled his goodbye as he shut the door behind him. I sighed as the house fell into silence once more. I stared down at my cooling food. No matter what happened, tomorrow would definitely be interesting.


	3. Chapter 2

**I don't own How To Train Your Dragon**

* * *

I was jostled out of my daydream at the sound of metal grinding against metal, as Gobber lifted up the gates to the Dragon Training Arena.

'Welcome to Dragon Training!' He announced, speaking just loud enough for me to hear.

He held his arms wide as he spun to face the new recruits following him into the arena. I watched in mild interest as they looked around with varying degrees of interest. I watched on with amusement as they tried to hide their nerves. Gobber had asked if I wanted to be down on the arena floor with them, but I decided that I got close enough to dragons during raids. I was still close enough to get to them in case of an emergency.

I frowned when I noticed the teens turn to look towards the entrance, their looks of interest quickly turning to ones of disgust. My eyes widened when the object of their attention walked into the arena behind them, looking as though he'd rather be anywhere else than here right now. What the hell was Hiccup doing here?

I couldn't hear what was being said, but from Hiccup's expression when Gobber threw an arm around his shoulder and started to forcefully guide him towards the retreating teens. Hiccup was forced into line besides Fishlegs as Gobber made his way to the front of the class to begin his lecture.

'Behind these doors,' he started, once again only just loud enough for me hear. 'are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight. And if any of ye'r worried you'll get hurt, our resident doctor in training in nearby to make sure you don't loose ye'r arms.'

I waved awkwardly when Gobber pointed up towards me. The twins and Snotlout glowering at the sight of me. Astrid remained indifferent, but Fishlegs and Hiccup both waved back just as awkwardly.

'Now, here we have the Deadly Nadder.' Gobber called out, regaining the classes attention. He pointed at the locked doors of the Nadders' prison. I flinched when the door's rattled ominously.

'The Hideous Zippleback.' More rattling. 'The Monstrous Nightmare.' This time the doors looked barely able to contain the dragon, as the hinges and locks strained to keep the captive dragon inside. 'The Terrible Terror.' The door's rattled again, followed this time by growling.

I jumped in surprise when Gobber's voice suddenly became louder as he shouted 'Can you stop that!' I looked back at the teens and found Fishlegs quickly looking down in embarrassment.

'And, the Gronckle.' Gobber finished resting his hand on the lever besides the Gronkle's cage.

'Wait!' I managed to hear Snotlout as he called to Gobber in a panic. 'Aren't you gonna teach us first?' I stood straighter, waiting to see what happened. What was Gobber up to?

I didn't hear the reply as Gobber pushed down on lever and released the Gronkle. The dragon burst through the doors, growling in anger before the doors had even completely unlocked. It's wings working quickly as it flew around the arena, watching the panicking teens carefully. I ducked down when it got too close to me, not wanting to become its target.

'Today is about survival. If you get blasted,' Gobber began again as the dragon barrelled through the line of teens, causing them to run off in different directions. 'Well, we'll find out just how quickly Hazel can run. Now what's the first thing you'll need?'

'A shield!' Astrid called out.

All six ran for the wall of shields, grabbing the first one they could get their hands on. I watched in frustration as Hiccup took longer than the others to actually put his shield on. I had to force myself not to call down to him to get a move on, Gobber had to force the shield on him. My frustration quickly turned into exasperation when I realised the twins were fighting over the same shield. I dropped my head onto my hands, not wanting to see what happened. Those two will need to be carried out on a stretcher if they carried on as they did. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the two in the same class was an idiot.

I only lifted my head when Gobber called out 'Ruffnut! Tuffnut! You're both out.' The two were currently pushing themselves off the ground. 'Your shields can also be used to make noise! Use it to confuse a dragon and throw off its aim.'

They began knocking their various weapons against their shields, making as much noise as possible whilst continually moving around to confuse it. The Gronckle shook his head as it tried to concentrate.

'Every dragon has a limited amount of shots. How many does a Gronckle have?' I shook my head in disbelief as Gobber continued to ask questions. How could any of them concentrate on both the questions Gobber kept throwing out, and the dragon that was doing its absolute best to kill them?

'5?' Snotlout called out, looking around in a panic. Yeah, great dragon killer my butt.

'No, 6!' Fishlegs corrected, lifting his shield in excitement as he realised he got the answer right.

'Correct Fishlegs!' Just as Gobber said that, the Gronckle shot a blast at Fishlegs' shield. 'Fishlegs out!' Fishlegs was more than happy to drop his hammer and run away yelling.

My eyes found Hiccup again as he began creeping out from behind the empty weapons wall, only to dive back behind it at the Gronckle shot a blast at the wall next to him. I groaned and lowered my head again. This was a disaster.

This time however, I didn't lift my head again, not even when I heard Snotlout cry out in pain and Gobber say 'Snotlout! You're done!' That meant there were only two people left in the "game", Astrid and Hiccup. I debated risking a peek, but when I heard another fire blast hit a wall, I decided it was a better idea to look elsewhere.

'Hiccup!' My head shout up at Gobber's panicked cry.

Hiccup was busy running away from the Gronkle, now missing his shield, and heading towards the arena wall just opposite me. Realising the problem with his plan, he turned to run a different way, but fell to floor and had to push himself back up against the arena wall when he realised the Gronckle was a lot closer to him than he probably expected.

I was pretty sure my heart had stopped beating. The Gronckle pressed himself closer to my friend. His jaw opening to land the fatal blast.

'Hiccup!' I cried. If he got himself killed, I was going to kill him.

I managed a breath of relief when Gobber managed to get his hook hooked in the Gronkle's mouth. Pulling its head to the side, causing the blast meant for Hiccup to hit the wall just above his head. Hiccup ducked down, covering his head from the falling rocks that had come loose from the blast. My heart restarted itself, beating at a fast pace that I was sure couldn't be healthy, as Gobber dragged the dragon away from Hiccup and back to its prison cell. Only just managing to lock it away, despite clearly having a lot more fight in it.

My shoulders relaxed, and I'm certain that about 5,000 years' worth of stress had just lifted itself off of me.

I ran down to the gate so that when Gobber opened them I could kill Hiccup myself. The moment the gates were opened, I pushed passed the other teens and barrelled into Hiccup. Wrapping my arms around his neck in a tight hug.

'Hazel… can't… breathe.' Hiccup gasped.

'Good!' I cried, pushing him away from me and whacking him on the arm. 'What the hell were you thinking? You were almost killed! Why didn't you do something? Why were you running towards the wall in the first place? Were you born an idiot? Or is that something that only showed up recently?'

'Um… well…. Hazel it really… I didn't mean…' He fumbled over his words, looking up at me like a scared little puppy. Something I was ashamed to admit I was pretty proud of. I raised an eyebrow.

'Well?' He flinched away from me, looking down at me in fear.

'Um… sorry?' I crossed my arms over my chest, tilting my hip out as I looked at him incredulously.

'Is that a question or a statement?' He stammered again.

'Um… uh… i-it was a statement?' Both eyebrows went up this time. 'Statement.' He amended.

'Hiccup lad?' We both turned to see Gobber approaching us. His eyes darting from me to Hiccup cautiously, while a hint of a smile played on his lips. I bristled at the sight. How could he find this funny? 'The rest of us will be going now.' Over Gobber's shoulder I noticed the other teens sniggering to themselves. My eyes narrowed. 'But make sure to come by the Great Hall at dinner time for another lesson.'

'Yeah, sure. No problem. I'll see you there. Can't wait.' Hiccup chuckled awkwardly. Gobber nodded and walked away, ushering the other teens out of the arena. Snoutlout complaining that he wanted to see Useless get beat up by the tribe's freak. I let out a breath of frustration. I was going to kill that kid. 'Oh boy.' Hiccup breathed, once they had gone. Rubbing the back of his neck.

'"Oh boy" is right.' I growled, turning to face him once more. 'Seriously Hiccup, what were you thinking?'

'I was thinking that I didn't want to hurt that dragon!' He cried, waving his arms around like crazy.

'So you decided to get yourself killed instead?' I crossed my arms again.

'Of course not!' He looked horrified that I would even ask that.

'Are you sure? Because it definitely didn't look that way!' He groaned and threw his arms up in exasperation.

'Look, we can continue this later.' He promised, putting his hands on my shoulders crouching down slightly to look me in the eyes. I always thought he had the nicest green eyes I had ever seen. I used to think green eyes looked kinda murky and dull. But Hiccups' were nice. They reminded me of the forest. 'But I've really got to go.'

I snapped out of my admiration of his eyes and frowned, remembering I was supposed to be angry at him.

'You have to go? Where exactly do you have to go?'

'I'll tell you later! But I seriously need to go.' He let go of my shoulders and ran for the open gate. I stood still for a second, trying to register what had just happened, then scowled. I was not going to wait around for him to come back.

'Hiccup Haddock! You wait till I get my hands on you!'

* * *

I managed to catch up to him fairly quickly, despite his longer legs, and the two of us ran for the forest together. Trying to stay out of sight of the villagers. Which ended up being a lot harder with Hiccup complaining with every step.

'If you think I'm gonna leave you alone after what I just saw, you're clearly a bigger idiot than I thought.' I final snapped. He shut up after that.

There was absolutely no way I was going to leave him alone today. Especially since I still wanted to know why he was now in Dragon Training.

I followed him deeper into the woods until we came upon a pile of discarded torn ropes, attached to multiple weights. I watched on in confusion as Hiccup knelt to the ground and picked up one of the ropes, looking over it carefully. Had this been where he had found the Night Fury?

'Why didn't he kill me?' He finally asked. Breaking the silence that had fallen over us.

'Excuse me?' I asked, not sure if I heard him right.

'Yesterday, you asked why he didn't kill me.' He answered, looking up at me. 'Today, Gobber said a dragon always goes for the kill. He didn't. But why?' I shrugged, not knowing how to answer him.

'C'mon, let's go see if we can find anything.' Hiccup decided, dropping the rope and getting back onto his feet.

We followed an invisible trail as we made our way further into the forest. We pushed through the underbrush, having to stop a few times when our clothes got caught on stray twigs or branches. I followed Hiccup as he made his way between two massive boulders, having to duck down to avoid the large branch that had fallen between the two rocks. He looked behind just as I cleared the branch, and after giving him a short nod, we barrelled on.

We came to a stop just outside the boulders exit and had to look around in both amazement and confusion. Green shrubbery, not unlike the rest of the forest, decorated the small area that surrounded the nearby lake. Natural walls circled the area, protecting it from outsiders. The trees growing above the walls stretched high above us, casting shade down below. And the sun that managed to break through over the trees, created a soft golden glow which, to me at least, seemed to become brighter at the sight of a small flock of birds making their way back to their nests, chirping happily as they went along.

'Did you know about this?' I breathed, not daring to speak louder than a whisper. I mentally scolded myself, it wasn't as though this place would completely disappear if we spoke at normal volume.

'No.' I relaxed slightly when Hiccup spoke in the same tone. Although he seemed to be more confused than amazed.

As I was busy admiring the view, I didn't pay attention to much else. Which was why it took Hiccup nudging my arm (which admittedly made me jump as I had honestly forgotten that he was there), before he crouched down to look at something on the ground. Lowering myself down beside him, I frowned as I finally noticed the black scales which made a trail leading down into the gorge.

'So we've found the scales, but where's the-' the two of us jerk back in surprise, falling onto our backs as a dark shadow shot passed us and lands on the wall directly next to the opening we came from.

We watched in terrified awe as the dragon we had been hunting, struggled to climb up the wall of the gorge. Hiccup quickly pushed himself up too his feet and hurried to get a closer look at the dragon, brushing my hand away when I tried to pull him back. Thankfully, before the dragon even realised we were there, it lost its grip on the rocky wall and fell down to the lake below, only just managing to open its wings to glide, somewhat shakily, to dry land.

'Oh my gods.' I breathed as I finally pushed myself up to come stand beside Hiccup. Looking down at the dragon below us.

Hiccup let out a quiet laugh of both amazement and relief when he realised we had found his dragon, and quickly hopped down onto a lower ledge so that he could get a better view. I hurried after him, getting excited myself at the chance to study a dragon up close. Hiccup fumbled as he pulled his notebook from his vest pocket, almost dropping his charcoal pencil as he flipped to a blank page in his book.

He quickly sketched out the dragon as I continued to watch the strange animal continually try and fail to fly away from the hidden gorge. My concern grew more and more pronounced the longer I watched the pitiful site, not understanding why he couldn't fly away.

'Do you think he's okay?' I whispered, watching as the dragon turned awkwardly mid-flight and dropped to the ground with a painful sounding thump.

'I don't know.' Was the answer I recieved. I looked over his shoulder at the sketch, and frowned.

'He only has one tail fin.' I pointed out. Hiccup looked between the drawing and the real thing before hurrying to rub out his mistake with the side of his hand.

I jumped when the dragon sent a fireball to the ground in front of him, clearly frustrated at his lack of flight.

'Why won't he just fly away?' Hiccup wondered aloud. I shrugged, not too sure how to answer the question.

The dragon didn't seem injured from my point of view; his wings didn't have any visible tears or holes that could have hindered his flight, and he clearly had enough energy to be able to fly away from Berk. So, what could have been the problem?

We watched as the dragon tried to fly away once more, only to turn awkwardly again mid-flight and fall to the ground next to the water's edge. My pity grew when a fish surface for a few seconds, just long enough to grab the dragon's attention, before diving back under the water. The dragon, perking up, stuck his head under the water, thrashed his head around as he tried to catch something, only to resurface with his head bowed in defeat and nothing in his mouth.

'He's starving.' I said aloud. Now I knew something was definitely wrong with the dragon. From what little knowledge I had of dragons, unless they had some sort of competition, or if there was a drastic decrease of their natural food source, they rarely had trouble catching food. Especially when the food was directly in front of them.

Hiccup scooted forward slightly out on the rock, using the hand that held his pencil to help him keep his balance as he moved. Which would have been fine, except he lost his grip on the pencil so it rolled out of his hand, and clattered down to the ground below. Naturally gaining the attention of the dragon.

* * *

 **A/N - Thank you to everyone whose already followed and favourited this story, I'm already having fun with it and have several ideas for what directions I want to take with the characters that I hope you guys would like (fingers crossed). This chapter, and the Sophia Jackson chapter that I'll be posting later tonight, will be the last chapters for the next few weeks due to being bombarded with University work, but I have a couple weeks coming up where I'll get a bit of writing done and hopefully a few chapters will come out of it. No promises though since the new Pokemon game will be coming out around the same time, but I remain hopeful. Anyway, hope you guys like this chapter, and hopefully I'll be able to have the next chapter up soon, if all goes to plan we get to meet Hazel's future dragon. No promises as I'm still not 100% what type I should give her. If anyone has any ideas just let me know!**

 **xxxWelshGirl4Lifexxx**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N - I don't own How To Train Your Dragon. Anything familiar I have borrowed from the film and do not claim ownership over.**

* * *

I left Hiccup to go to his lesson that evening in the Great Hall, in favour of returning to my own home to make my own dinner, and to hopefully clean up somewhat before bed. My house wasn't necessarily a mess, but it wasn't clean either. On top of my laundry, I had several dirty bowls piling up, and the surfaces needed dusting down. Like I said, my house wasn't over flowing with filth, but it would have given my mother a heart attack if she had seen it. I rolled my eyes at the thought of the lecture she'd have given me if she had ever seen the state of the house.

In the two years I had been on Berk, I had slowly began getting used to the idea of never seeing my family again. Yes, it still hurt. I would never get to see my little brother grow up and become a famous footballer like he had always wanted. Nor would I get to see my older sister become the amazing doctor she was determined to become. I wouldn't even get to introduce my first boyfriend to my parents.

It was a sobering thought whenever I realised I had so many things left to discover, and I wouldn't even get to share them with my family. It hurt thinking about it, but not as much as it used to. Now, I could actually think about them without wanting to cry. And I could even smile at some of my memories without it seeming bittersweet.

Now, however, my struggle mostly surrounded whether or not I should tell Hiccup the truth. He was my best friend, and he basically told me everything about himself, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't keep any secrets from me. I mean, he did tell me about the dragon so I'm assuming he's told me everything he can.

I paused in my washing up as I thought about what Hiccup was going to do about this dragon thing. It was obvious that he wasn't going to kill it. And I knew if the tribe ever found out then there would be hell to pay. And I could see him being stuck in Dragon Training was going to end well either. I don't know what Stoick was thinking, Hiccup was no dragon slayer. It was a miracle he even managed to survive the first lesson.

I winced at the memory.

I shoved the last bowl onto the side to dry, and dragged the bucket of now dirty water outside where I emptied the contents on the grass. I grimaced at the sight. If there was one thing I missed about my time it was a decent pluming system.

With my cutlery, bowls and plates now drying, I concentrated on making my dinner, stopping only to make my bed when I figured my food would be okay by itself for a minute or so. I frowned when thunder boomed overhead, and prayed I wouldn't need to hunt down any buckets for any leaks that may spring up. The last storm had been a pretty nasty one, and had blown away some of my roof panels. I had made a make-shift fixing once it had past, but just never got around to asking Gobber to fix it for real. And now tonight I may pay for it.

After making sure that I had enough logs to last me the night, so that if I woke freezing I wouldn't have to go out into the storm, I was finally able to sit down at my table and enjoy my stew.

* * *

Listening to the storm raging on overhead was oddly relaxing. Despite the fact that I couldn't sleep. I was waiting for the moment where I would need to start collecting buckets. And, if I was totally honest with myself, I couldn't stop thinking about Hiccup. He had gotten himself into a pretty dangerous situation with this dragon, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that Hiccup wasn't going to be killing it anytime soon. If I didn't have a problem with killing myself and if I didn't think he'd hate me for life if I did, I'd go ahead and kill the dragon myself.

That, and with Dragon Training, Hiccup was supposed to be learning how to become this kickass dragon slayer, despite people believing such a thing was impossible (something I am now inclined to agree too), he was expected to make some improvements. Be able to hold a weapon for longer than 10 seconds for one. Actually know how to use it for another.

I rolled over and snuggled down further under my blankets. He was going to get himself seriously hurt one day soon, and I doubted I was going to be able to help him when he did. I stared blankly ahead at my wall, trying to come up with something to help my friend. But sadly I came to the conclusion that I couldn't really help him.

There was no way I'd be able to kill that Night Fury. Nor could I help him in Dragon Training. I had barely any physical training that could help me in either situation, what little I did have meant that I could fight off the most incompetent bandit you could think of. And even then, the possibility of my success was unlikely. I couldn't tell anyone about the Night Fury, on the off chance they did believe me, or least pretended they did long enough for me to show them the dragon, there would be no doubt in my mind that they would kill it. Hurting Hiccup's standing in the tribe even further if they did believe he managed to knock it out of the sky, and ultimately ruining whatever trust he had in me.

I rolled back over onto my back and glowered at the ceiling. How had my life become so complicated in a such a short space of time? And I had just started getting used to living here. I huffed, causing a red curl to flick up from my head, only to float back down and rest between my eyes a second later. I frowned and focused my eyes on the piece of hair that was currently tickling my nose. Well, that settles it. I'm not getting any sleep tonight.

I threw my blankets off of me, and heaved myself up from my bed. I had just put my shoes back on, when my door flew open, crashing against my wall, and scaring me to the point where I fell off of my bed and knocked my elbow painfully against my wooden floor.

'Hazel! Are you awake?' My best friend cried out. I bit my lip to stop myself from cursing him as he appeared in my bedroom doorway, which was really just a section of wall that had been cut out with a thin piece of fabric acting as a makeshift door. He was dripping wet, his auburn hair clinging to his forehead and looking as though his clothes were attempting to drown him.

'If I wasn't before, I definitely would be after that entrance.' I grumbled, glowering up at him as I still sat on the floor rubbing my elbow. 'Why can't you knock like normal people?'

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. 'Heh. Sorry about that.' He held out a hand and helped me to my feet. His other clutching a thick, leather back book to his side. I raised an eyebrow at the sight.

'I'm assuming the reason you're here involves the Book of Dragons?' He nodded excitably, his green eyes wider than usual.

'This book,' he held the book up for me to see. 'Has everything Vikings know about dragons, what they do, where to find them, how to kill them. All except the Night Fury.' He huffed, leading me out to the front area of my house where my door was still open.

As if sensing my displeasure, Hiccup quickly shut the door again, creating a barrier from the cold and rain from outside. I made my way over to my dying fire, where I kept several pieces of cloths that I used for towels and threw one at Hiccup. Knowing if he didn't dry off soon, he'd be sick with a cold for weeks.

'Thanks.' He mumbled, running the cloth over his head in an attempt to dry his hair with one hand, and flicking through the book that he had propped up on my table with the other. 'Look at this!' He cried out, before reading from one of the pages. 'Thunderdrum, inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled it produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at close range. _Extremely dangerous kill on sight.'_

I threw a log onto the fire and grabbed my poker to poke at the embers, trying to get the flames to grow before I joined Hiccup at the table. I listened carefully as he continued reading. 'Timberjack. This gigantic creature has razor-sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees. _Extremely dangerous kill on sight._ Scauldron. Sprays scalding water at its victims. _Extremely dangerous kill on sight.'_

Thunder crashed outside, reflecting the dark mood that seemed to have grown inside. Satisfied with my fire, I stood and joined Hiccup at my table as he seemed to become more and more worked up with each page he read from. I lay a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down.

'Changewing, _kill on sight._ Gronckle. Zippleback. The Skrill. Bone Knapper. Whispering Death! Every single one of these dragons are classed as extremely dangerous, and should be killed on sight!' Hiccup cried, dropping his towel and picking the book up again, flipping to the very end before dropping it with a loud thump back onto my table. 'Except for him! The Night Fury.'

I leant closer to him so that I could look over the book with him, my hand on his shoulder tightened ever so slightly as I stared at the page. I didn't recognise many of the words, but I admit to feeling more than a bit worried and perhaps a little scared at the lack of information the book held on Berk's newest, and most likely unwelcome visitor if he was ever discovered.

'You have to help me out here Hiccup.' I murmured, squinting my eyes as though that would help me understand the unfamiliar words.

'Speed, unknown. Size, unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.' I swallowed thickly as Hiccup continued. 'Never engage this dragon. Your only chance is to hide and pray it never finds you.'

'Maybe you should tell someone about him.' I finally said after a moments silence. Hiccup shook his head quickly, his eyebrows furrowing as he continued to stare at the book in front of us.

'If this were true, I'd be dead right now. Flight or no flight.' He sighed, his shoulders slumping forward. I removed my hand from his shoulder and ran it up and down his back in what I hopped was a soothing manner. 'He has had more than one chance to kill me, but he hasn't. Why?'

'Maybe he's repaying a debt.' I shrugged. Hiccup stiffened, and turned his head towards me. His brow furrowing further as his confusion mounted. 'Think about it. You didn't kill him when you had the perfect moment to kill him, but you didn't. Maybe he recognises that.'

'But everything we have been taught about them, about the dragons, state that they are just mindless beasts who will do everything they can to kill us.' He pointed out, flipping back through the book and pointing out the various images depicting the many, and violent deaths of past Vikings.

'People can be wrong.' I stated, grabbing one of his hands to stop him from looking through the book. 'Look, this Night Fury seemed ridiculously smart. He definitely seemed to see you as more of a curiosity than a threat, granted, I don't think many dragons _would_ see you as a threat.' He sputtered in indignation. 'No, no. Listen.' I turned him to face me before continuing. 'People can be wrong, and so can books. But if this one can teach us anything, is that Vikings know nothing about Night Fury's. Yes, he seemed a lot smarter than what we are taught to expect from dragons, but he is still dangerous. I think that for now, you should just leave him be.'

Hiccup shook his head once more, his confused expression turning into one of determination. 'I'm going back. He needs help. And I'm going to try and help him.'

'Hiccup-' I sighed, but was interrupted.

'No Hazel!' I jumped back slightly as he raised his voice, letting his hands go as I did. He raised his hands hopelessly as he stared my at my ceiling as though he could find all his answers there. 'I got him into this mess. For whatever reason he can't fly now, and he's clearly hungry. It's the least I can do to help him out.'

'Hiccup, if you get hurt-'

'But I won't.' He interrupted, speaking more softly this time.

'You don't know that.' I stated, stepping closer to him once more. 'What if he doesn't want your help? He could lash out and seriously hurt you. Your father would be heartbroken if he came back and found you dead.' Hiccup scoffed.

'You mean he'd throw a party.'

'You underestimate how much your father loves you, Hiccup.' He snorted. 'It's the truth. He came to me after the first time we talked, and practically threatened me to stay away from you. He didn't want you making friends with the outsider, in case I ended up being a raging lunatic and ran the tribe into extinction. He really does love you Hiccup.' He looked down at the floor as he thought over my words. 'And so do I.' His head snapped up and looked at me in surprise.

'You're my best friend. It would kill me if something happened to you.' The surprise dropped from his face and morphed into something else, but he dropped his head once more before I could figure out what exactly. 'Please don't do this Hiccup.'

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable as I pleaded with him. We stood in silence for a while, and I thought about saying more when he finally looked up. He face set in determination. My shoulders slumped as I realised he had made up his mind.

'I'm going back. Tomorrow after Dragon Training. I have to.' I sighed loudly as I studied his face carefully. His expression didn't waver.

'Alright. Fine. But I'm coming with you.' His eye widened, and his mouth opened to say something, but I held up a hand to stop him. 'No. If you're going to do something stupid and quite possibly life threatening, I want to make sure you have someone with you who at least knows how to give stitches.' He looked at me blankly for a few second before shrugging.

'Alright then.' I nodded once.

'Good. Now do you mind if we got some sleep? We have a big, and very dangerous day tomorrow. And I at least want to get a good night sleep to prepare.'

'Good point.' He said, picking up the book once more and tucking it under his arm. 'I've got to get this back anyway.'

'Not in this storm you're not.' I scolded. Taking the book from him and dropping it back onto the table. 'You're staying here tonight.'

'I am?' I nodded, and led him back through to my bedroom, slipping my shoes off as I went. His clothes were still wet at this point, so I rooted through my small chest at the bottom of my bed and grabbed the overly large shirt that had been donated to me a few months back, that I had been planning on altering for me to wear but hadn't exactly got around to. I threw it to Hiccup, who barely managed to catch it before it hit him in the face.

'Get changed. You're still wet. Stick your clothes by the fire, then you can get some sleep.' His cheeks erupted with colour and his eyes skirted around my room nervously. I rolled my eyes. 'In the other room genius. When you're done you can come back in.'

He nodded quickly, his cheeks still a bright red and hurried into the other room. I shook my head in amusement as I heard him crash into something and curse loudly. If he broke something he had better fix it. I got into bed and waiting, laughing quietly when I heard him trip over something. When he finally returned, I couldn't help myself from bursting out into laughter as I saw just how big the shirt was on him.

The arms stretched down, way past his hands and brushed the tops of his knees. The hem itself stopped midway down his shins. He was practically swimming in it. I laughed harder when he glared at me. It was hard to take him seriously when he was wearing a shirt that was meant for a man four times his size.

'Shut up.' He growled, and stomped over to the other side of my bed and pulled the blankets back.

It wasn't unusual for Hiccup to spend the night at mine. His dad leaving for one of his dragon hunting trips meant that we would have more time to hang out, and since my place was one of the few places where we wouldn't be disturbed we usually would end up hanging out here, and sometimes we would end up losing track of time. Although, this was the first time he ended up borrowing clothes from me.

He rolled over in bed, keeping his back to me as he continued to sulk. I giggled once more before rolling over myself. 'Goodnight Hiccup.' He huffed, but didn't reply.

I fell asleep still smiling.

* * *

The next day at Dragon Training I stood next to Gobber as we looked down at the maze that had been set up for the trainees. I was trying extremely hard to not judge Gobber's teaching style, as the Deadly Nadder, chosen for this day's lesson, stalked the teens from on top of the maze's walls.

'You know,' I started, grabbing Gobber's attention just as the Nadder dove after Snotlout. 'Maybe it would be a good idea to prep them before every practical lesson. Just to cover some bases so they know what to expect.'

'Nonsense!' Gobber cried, patting me on the back with his good hand. My knees buckled from the force. 'The best way to learn is on the job!'

'It's also the easiest way to die.' I mumbled, wincing as the Nadder shot several spikes in Fishlegs' direction. I probably would have been able to hear his squeal of surprise from the other side of the arena.

'Hey Gobber!' The two of us looked down to find Hiccup standing in front of the wall below us. His body facing the arena, although it was easy to tell that he wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to what was going on. 'I just happened to notice that the Book of Dragon's has nothing on Night Fury's. Why is that?' Gobber leant his good arm on the wall in front of us, resting his cheek on the palm of his hand as he sighed in exasperation. I was with him on that, although probably for a different reason. 'Like maybe a second book, or, or a pamphlet or something?'

My eyes widened as I turned my gaze from Hiccup as he carried on speaking to Gobber, and found the Nadder on the wall directly opposite him, having caught its attention during his ramblings.

'Hiccup! Watch –' But I was too late.

The Nadder shot a burst of fire at Hiccup, and probably would have killed him to, had Hiccup not turned just the slightest bit to the side so that the fireball had hit the wall besides him, as well as the axe he had been borrowing. Melting it completely in seconds. Hiccup dropped the rest of his axe is surprise, and finally looked up. Spotting the Nadder eyeing him carefully.

'Come on Hiccup! Focus!' Gobber called out in exasperation. 'Ye'r not even trying.'

Hiccup fumbled around, trying to figure out which direction to go in, just as the Nadder began stalking closer and closer to him, picking up pace with every step. I almost threw myself down into the arena to drag Hiccup in one direction, when he finally made up his mind and darted to his right. Barely missing being turned into dragon fodder.

'Today, for those of you who haven't figured it out,' I had feeling Gobber was talking to Hiccup here. 'Is all about attack.' I ducked down behind the wall, deciding it would be better for my health if I didn't watch this, when the Nadder hopped back up onto the walls, using them to get a better look at its prey. 'Nadders are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter!'

'So not helping Gobber.' I groaned, dropping my head down onto my knees.

'What ya doing down there?' He asked. Sounding surprised that I wouldn't want to watch my only friend die today.

'Admiring the view.' I snarked back. He tutted, and shoved his hand under my armpit. Hefting me up to my feet, despite my protests, and turning me so that I could watch this utter disaster of a lesson continue below us.

'You should be watching this!' He scolded, patting me on the shoulder, nearly knocking me down into the arena to join the rest of the class, before he turned back to what was happening below. 'You might learn something. Now look for its blind spot!' He called down to the others, going back to leaning on the wall. His cheek once again resting on his hand. 'Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it. And strike!' I briefly remembered my old teachers, and couldn't help but wonder how horrified they'd be if they saw Gobber pushing for even more violence in his lessons.

I watched with bated breath as the twins managed to stumble upon the dragon, and, by some miracle, managed to find the Nadder's blind spot. Ruffnut stood behind Tuffnut as they moved along with the dragon, trying to stay directly in front of its nose as it moved its head trying to find them. I must have held onto too much hope for them, since the two of them started fighting pretty quickly. Meaning the two soon ended up outside of the Nadder's blind spot. Much to the dragon's relief, and possible pleasure.

Ruffnut, thankfully, realised the danger the two were in, and grabbed Tuffnut by his arm, pulling him down the nearby pathway, just in time to avoid the burst of fire sent their way.

'Blind spot, yes. Deaf spot, not so much.' By now, Gobber was starting to look bored by how little success his students were having.

'Can I duck back down now?' I asked, hoping I wouldn't have to watch this anymore. Unfortunately my hope was crushed when he just laughed at me.

At that moment, Hiccup ran down the path just below us. Only to stop and look back up at us before he continued questioning Gobber.

'How would one sneak up on a Night Fury?' He asked. I rolled my eyes. He really had no idea on how to be subtle. I was pretty sure Gobber would soon be asking questions about his sudden interest in Night Fury's.

'No one's ever met one, and lived to tell the tale.' Gobber's sighed, rubbing at his temple. 'Now concentrate!'

Hiccup jumped back in surprise at Gobber's shout, and I had to admit, even I was startled at his sudden volume. 'I know, but hypothetically-' He was cut off by Astrid hissing something at him, however, I hadn't been able to work out what she had actually said. Her expression said everything though. Shut up, and get down.

I doubted I would ever be so thankful for Astrid's existence in my entire life.

Hiccup quickly hurried over to where Astrid and Snotlout were crouched behind a wall, ducking down beside his cousin as Astrid readied herself to dash past the opening where the Nadder was busy trying to sniff them out. I watched as she steeled herself, before quickly falling into a forward roll so that she could reach the other side with minimal detection. Despite her faults, I couldn't help but admire Astrid's ability to think quickly on her feet.

Snotlout soon followed after her, as did Hiccup. Though his attempt to follow the other two in a forward roll was hindered by the fact he couldn't actually stand back up after he rolled, His shield was just a bit too heavy for him to pick back up after he lost momentum. Which, unfortunately meant he caught the attention of the Nadder. Who quickly hurried after him, pleased that it had managed to find its prey.

The dragon only followed Hiccup on foot for so far, before deciding to fly back up to the top of the walls, where it was able to find Astrid and Snotlout faster than it would have on foot. I wasn't quite able to see exactly what happened, especially since I wasn't too keen on finding a better viewing point, but I figured that Snotlout had tried to impress Astrid in some way, but ended up angering the dragon instead.

This was further proven by the now familiar sound of fire being breathed at the teens, and how quickly the dragon then took off as its prey tried to run for safety, growling angrily as it got closer and closer to its prey. I couldn't help but wince as the dragon just missed catching Astrid in its jaws when she turned at the last moment, and went down a different direction. Surprising the Nadder, and causing it to crash into one of the removable walls and send it and itself crashing to the ground.

I was impressed, however, with how quickly the dragon jumped back up onto his feet, although I did feel sorry for the rest of the students when the dragon had clearly become enraged with its predicament, and now that it realised it could just knock down the walls instead of flying over them, it decided to ram into every wall it came across, sending them crashing to the ground and causing clouds of dust flying up wherever they fell.

I wanted to turn away when I started hearing the panicked shouts and the cries of disbelief, but somehow I managed to force myself to keep watching. Wanting to see if they figured out a way to get out of this mess. If they did, I'd pretty impressed.

'Has anyone ever seen a Night Fury napping?' I groaned when I heard Hiccup's voice once more, as he came to stand below Gobber and me. That boy just doesn't give up.

'Hiccup!' Gobber cried out, in about as much disbelief as I was feeling.

Hiccup finally realised that he wasn't going to get an answer, and so he turned around to take in the rest of the class and finally noticed the angry dragon that was knocking down walls, and getting increasingly closer to him by the second. But of course, he didn't move. Instead he decided to watch as Astrid somehow managed to propel herself onto the top of one of the walls, leaping from one to the other, before reaching the one directly in front of Hiccup.

She screeched at him to move. But of course he was stuck frozen at the sight of the girl he had a crush on standing several feet above me, so naturally she lost momentum and came tumbling down towards him. Along with a very unsafe makeshift wall, and a very angry dragon.

The wall, like all the others, came down with a crash. Once the dust had cleared, you could see Astrid had ended up landing right on top of Hiccup, the wall somehow managing to miss the two of the completely, but Astrid had still managed to get her axe stuck in Hiccup's shield. The dragon stumbled past them, dazed from the collision.

Astrid, using the dragon's momentary confusion, sat up on Hiccup's stomach and tried pulling her axe out of Hiccup's shield, but it refused to budge even the slightest bit. She pushed down on his chest, trying to somehow use it as leverage as she continued pulling at her axe. I frowned. Feeling my stomach churn uncomfortably at how close she was to Hiccup.

I tried shaking the feeling off, knowing that it was illogical to be feeling this way given the situation, but the jealousy remained.

Astrid eventually had to resort to pulling the entire shield off of Hiccup's arm when the Nadder finally shook off its confusion and was charging straight at them. She threw the shield, and managed to hit the Nadder directly on its nose, causing the shield to completely shatter from the force, and sent the axe off flying in the opposite direction.

'Well done Astrid!' Gobber praised, clapping loudly in my ear.

The girl in question was stood, panting heavily, as she looked on in disbelief as if struggling to understand what had just happened. I watched on as she turned away from the sulking dragon, her face forming into a harsh glare as she turned on Hiccup, who was still sprawled out on the floor, a dazed expression on his face.

'Is this some kind of joke to you?' She cried, raising her hands as she gestured to the now destroyed arena. 'Our parents' war is about to become ours. Figure out which side you're on.' With that, she turned on her heal, and marched off towards the arena gates. The other four following along behind her, not even sparing a backwards glance at Hiccup.

I looked down at my best friend as he watched them go with a saddened look on his face, looking completely defeated by the blondes' words. Anger bubbled inside me. You'd think Astrid was the chief with how she went around talking to people. None of what just happened was Hiccup's fault. Yeah he probably should have moved. But he didn't anger the dragon. He was actually keeping out of its way, all he had to do was make sure there wasn't actually a dragon around when he tried speaking to Gobber. Granted he didn't do much of a good job most of the time.

I followed Gobber down into the arena, leaving him to deal with the dragon, as I went over to Hiccup and pulled him to his feet. I felt my anger grow when I saw the small, almost forced smile he gave me. Astrid would pay for this. I'm not sure how, but she will.

* * *

'Ouch! Hey! Will you-? Hazel! Stop it!' I sighed in frustration and dropped the piece of cotton I had been using to wipe at the new cuts Hiccup had managed to gain from his most recent "lesson". He had been complaining almost non-stop since I had brought him back to my place. But I had figured he wouldn't appreciate being taken up to Gothi's just to have a few scrapes cleaned up. I don't know which one of us was more thankful that he didn't need stitches.

'You must have hit your head harder than we thought, if you think for one second I'm letting you run off to that dragon whilst bleeding.' I snapped. Picking the cloth back up again and dipping it into the bowl of hot water I had prepared. Cleaning it of the dirt I had managed to pick up from his scrapes. 'Just let me make sure they won't get infected and then we can go.'

'You still want to come with me then?' He asked, looking down at his hands as though he was afraid to hear the answer.

'Of course I do.' I wrung the cloth of excess water, and picked up his left hand. Dabbing at a particularly nasty scrape. 'Why wouldn't I?'

'Did you not see what just happened?' He asked, his voice growing several octaves as he looked up at me. 'It's going to be dangerous! I'm not even going to be able to protect you if he lashes out at us!'

'I'm not asking you to.' I replied, straining to keep my voice calm as I continued my work. 'And to be honest, out of the two of us, that Night Fury is more likely to lash out at me that it does you. Did you not see how it reacted when it saw me?'

'Yeah, but –' I shook my head, not letting him continue.

'No buts. I'll keep my distance don't worry. I'll only approach if he seems calm.' I looked up and looked him directly in the eyes, finding myself admiring how green they looked. Almost like the forest on a sunny day. 'Will that make you feel better?'

'Not really.' He grumbled, looking down at his hands once more. His fingers brushed against the inside of my wrist, before he pulled his hand from my grasp completely.

'Alright, what's wrong?' I sighed, dropping the cloth back into the bowl of water and crossing my arms.

'Nothing.' He mumbled, shrugging pathetically. I bit back a smile as her reminded me of a grumpy toddler.

'This is about what Astrid said, isn't it?' When he didn't answer, I knew I was right. I knew she had upset him, but I didn't think that it had affected him this much. He was usually able to brush off anything mean or rude that she usually said to him, and instead usually spends several hours gushing over the fact that she had actually spoken to him. 'Hiccup, you shouldn't listen to what she says. She has no idea what she's talking about most of the time.'

'Most of the time. Not always. But that's not why I'm upset.' He said, still keeping his eyes locked on his hands.

'Then what -?'

'She basically called me a failure of a Viking.' He shrugged. 'She was right.' I let a furious breath out through my nose, hating Astrid more and more by the second.

'Okay, firstly. You are not a failure.' I started, ducking down so that he was forced to look at me. 'Everyone just seems to be more focused on the fighting and killing dragons side of things, that they haven't actually realised just how amazing you really are. Your one of two Vikings on this Island who can actually make weapons. And you always make sure to do your part in helping out during raids., helping those who have been to injured to actually fix their homes. Not knowing how to fight, and not wanting to kill dragons does not make you a failure. It just means you're better at some things, than you are at others. They'll figure it out eventually.'

I gave myself a mental pat on the back when I saw him smile. I straightened up, and smiled myself when Hiccup lifted his head so that we didn't break eye contact.

'And secondly,' I started, picking up my cloth once more and wringing it out again. 'You. Are mostly definitely a Viking.' I picked his right hand up this time, and went about cleaning the smaller, yet somehow nastier looking cuts. 'You have to be the most stubborn, and hard headed person I have ever met. And if that doesn't make you a Viking, then nothing will.'

He threw his head back and laughed, and I inwardly cheered at successfully making him feel better. My stomach fluttered at the sound. I had always liked Hiccup's laugh.

'Thank you.' He said, still smiling. His cheeks flushed red.

'Don't thank me for speaking the truth!' I stated, pointing the cloth at him sternly. 'Just sit and enjoy the fact that all those Vikings out there have been wrong for years. And prepare yourself for when your best friend rubs it in their faces the moment they realise this.' He rolled his eyes at me, but then laughed once more. 'Now sit still so I can finish this faster.'

He fell quiet, and didn't say anything else until I was putting my supplies away.

'Hey Hazel?'

'Hmmm?' I threw the dirty cloth into the small bag I used for dirty medical supplies. Making a mental note to take them up to Gothi sometime in the week so that she could clean the properly. I usually burned anything I thought could pass on an infection or illness to someone, even after being thoroughly washed by Gothi's strong smelling cleaning solution. Although Gothi did end up checking the rags I did give her, just in case I missed something.

'Are you going to eat that fish?' I paused, and looked over at Hiccup blankly. Not sure if I had heard him properly.

'I'm sorry what?'

* * *

 **A/N - So new chapter up. Yay! So far I feel like I've got a pretty good flow going on with the story line (granted a huge chunk of it is actually from the films), but considering I've got the next few chapters planned out I feel like I'm getting into a pretty good rhythm. My only problem at the moment is what kind of dragon Hazel should have. I know how they meet, just don't know the type. Any ideas?**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N - I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, anything familiar does not belong to me**

* * *

After grudgingly agreeing to let Hiccup take the fish I had been planning on cooking that night, and after a quick stop at the forge where Hiccup "borrowed" a shield and a dagger, which he had then tucked the dagger into his belt, we hurried off into the forest where Hiccup claimed he knew how to get down into the dragons den without having to climb down those steep rocks and potentially hurting ourselves. How he had even figured that out I never actually bothered to ask.

When we found Hiccup's secret entrance, I had gone to step down it thinking that Hiccup would soon follow along behind me, only to be proven wrong as I was pulled back by said person and given a strict talking to about making sure I stayed safe as well as being forced into promising that I would make sure I stayed behind him the entire time, unless he thought it was safe to come out. His only argument being that he was the one with the shield.

'Yeah alright then _dad_.' I had scoffed, crossing my arms defiantly as I stared my best friend down.

'Promise me.' He pushed, not backing down. I sighed when I realised how serious he was being, my shoulders slumping as I grudgingly agreed.

'Alright, I promise. But if I get blamed for not being in the way of the fireball that kills the chiefs son, then I'll be bringing you back from the dead just so I can kill you again.' He scoffed and nudged my shoulder, before ducking down the steep incline that would take us through a small gap between the cluster of boulders, that would then lead down into the hidden cove.

'Of course you will Hazel.' Hiccup sassed, moving my fish to his shield arm so that he could reach out to grab my hand and helping down the slope, carefully watching me to make sure I didn't slip. 'And after you do that, Astrid will marry Snotlout, Ruffnut will admit defeat and announce that Tuffnut is the better twin, and the sky will turn bright pink with orange polka-dots.'

'So you think Tuffnut is the better twin then?' I smirked, biting back a giggle when he laughed mockingly at me.

'Hardy-ha-ha.' He mocked, wearing a cheeky grin as he looked down at me. 'You think you're so funny don't you Miss Greene?'

'I don't know if you've heard, but I am hysterical! How else do you think I've been I've been able to keep you around for so long?' I asked, a smirk still stuck on my face. 'Now are we going to get a move on, or are we going to stand here all day holding hands, talking about how funny I am?'

Hiccup flushed a bright a red from the tips of his ears, to the bottom of his neck and quickly dropped my hand. He turned his back on me pretty quickly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and mumbling something about having a dragon to feed before shuffling down the almost invisible pathway. I couldn't help but laugh as I followed along behind him. Nor could I stop the heat rising to my cheeks, or the butterflies that erupted in my stomach. I was then glad that I had promised to stay behind him.

At some point doing our little trek, Hiccup had ended up grabbing the fish once more with his free hand, so when I naturally ended up stumbling on a loose rock and automatically ended up reaching out to grab Hiccup's hand, I ended up gripping the raw fish instead.

I wrenched my hand back in disgust, unable to stop the horrified squeal leaving my mouth. Hiccup let out a bark of laughter. I growled and slapped his arm, of all the things he could have found funny, me being clumsy had to be one of them. Thankfully, no other incident occurred, so we carried on down to the cove in silence. I had thought about making some form of noise as we got closer and closer to the exit, not liking the idea of sneaking up on an injured dragon, but the realised that making a lot of noise would just mean the dragon would have more time to prepare a sneak attack on us. So I decided to remain quiet.

As we approached the entrance to the cove, Hiccup raised his shield up in front of him, the upper half of his body (including his head) was kept well out of sight by the shield. I watched with mild-amusement as he peeked up over the top of his shield, before he threw the salmon out into the open air.

I peered over Hiccup's shoulder, curious as the whether the dragon would do something at the sight of us, but when nothing happened I frowned. Pushing myself up further onto my toes so that I could get a better look, I tried spotting any sign of the dragon.

'Do you think he's gone?' I whispered in Hiccup's ear. He shook his head.

'He couldn't have. He couldn't fly.' I bit the corner of my lip as I tried to come up with an explanation.

'Maybe he's got friends?' I tried, but got no reply from him.

Instead he pushed forward, shield still held up at the ready, but at the last moment he managed to get the shield stuck between the boulder and the wall that lined the cove. Had we been in any other situation I probably would have laughed. But considering we were currently missing a pretty big, flightless dragon, I didn't want to take my chances.

After pushing on the shield, trying to get it to move, and then discovering that it was completely useless, he ducked under the thing all together. He looked back for a second locking his eyes on mine, before going back to the task at hand. He bent down to pick up the salmon, hooking his fingers under its gill, then reached back with his free hand to grab my own. Pulling me to his side as we crept further into the cove.

We walked shoulder to shoulder, hands still linked, turning in circles as we tried to spot the hidden dragon. I ran my thumb over his hand, feeling how tense he was. The only response I got was his grip tightening on my hand.

I couldn't help but feel impressed by how easily this dragon was hiding. I mean, yeah, he was smaller than some of the dragons I had seen, but he wasn't that small. And I would have thought his black scales would have stood out amongst the vegetation in the cove, but clearly this wasn't the case.

Hiccup and I looked out towards the lake, still trying to spot the dragon, and slightly hoping that maybe he was trying to pass time by swimming. My theory, however, was proven incorrect, when we heard a low growl come from behind us. We unlaced our hands, both of us gasping in surprise at the sight of the dragon watching us from the top of several strategically placed boulders.

He uncurled his wings as he began creeping down the boulders, its eyes darting between the two of us. We backed away as it reached the ground, sniffing curiously as it caught the scent of the salmon Hiccup was now clutching to his chest. Almost as though he was expecting it to protect him. I slapped Hiccups arm with the back of my hand, getting his attention when I noticed the dragon was now looking between us, and the fish. Realising how hungry he must be right now, I nodded at the fish when Hiccup finally cast a quick side glance at me, and watched with bated breath as he held out the fish for the dragon to take.

The dragon crouched down lower on his front legs, pushing its back end up higher and lifting his wings once more. Watching both of us carefully in case we decided to attack. He crept forward, sniffing carefully at the fish, looking between it and Hiccup, almost as if asking if it was okay to take. When Hiccup silently urged him to take the fish, he crept even closer opening his mouth, ready to take the food when he glanced down and stepped back. A snarl ripping through its throat. I stepped back in surprise, grabbing the back of Hiccup's vest as I prepared to pull him back if needed.

The Night Fury's snarls grew louder as Hiccup pulled back his vest, revealing the dagger he had tucked away in his belt. The dragon narrowed his eyes as Hiccup reached down and pulled the dagger from his belt, holding it out by the tips of his fingers, and dropped it to the ground beside him. I raised an eyebrow in surprise when the dragon motioned with his head to throw the knife away even further. Not wanting to start a fight with the dragon, Hiccup slid his foot under the dagger, picking it up so that it rested on top of his foot, the flicked it away into the lake where it landed with a _Plop,_ in the water.

The Night Fury glanced between Hiccup and I cautiously, his eyes narrowing the slightest bit when he looked at me. Once deciding we were no longer a threat, he quickly shifted so that his wings were now folded back once more, and sat back on his hind legs. His green eyes widening as it looked down at the fish and back at Hiccup, his ear twitching as he waited expectantly.

'Awwww.' I cooed, unable to help myself. He was pretty cute for a dragon. Hiccup nudged my side with his elbow, shaking his head warningly at me. I rolled my eyes. It wasn't like I was going to pet him.

Hesitantly, Hiccup held out the fish, inviting the dragon forward once more. It approached a lot quicker this time. Less cautious of us, now that the only weapon we brought with us was out of the way. The Night Fury tilted his head once it got in range of the fish, opening his mouth and peering up at Hiccup once more, as though double checking it would be okay.

'Huh, Toothless?' Hiccup wondered, staring down at the dragons' toothless mouth. 'I could have sworn you had-' I jumped in fright as teeth suddenly sprouted up out of the dragons' gums, sounding like a sword being unsheathed. He reached out and snatched the fish up out of Hiccup's hands and swallowed it before Hiccup even had a chance to finish. 'Teeth.'

We stared at the dragon, wide eyed. I didn't know what I was expecting, but I was pretty sure being surprised by retractable teeth wasn't one of them. The dragon snapped his eyes down to us, grumbling curiously as it looked us up and down. He hunched forward again, sniffing curiously as it hurried towards us, making us back up quickly in fear that it would try to eat us, Hiccup somehow managing to stumble, bring me down with him making us resort to crawling backwards on our hands as the dragon kept approaching.

'No, no, no!' Hiccup hurried out, looking panicked as the dragon began sniffing at his clothes. 'I don't have any more!' The dragon sat back, sounding disappointed by the news then looked towards me hopefully.

'I don't have anything.' I squeaked out before he could start searching me. His shoulders dropped slightly, looking more disappointed than before.

He looked back at Hiccup, tilted his head, and moved closer to him. His eye narrowing weirdly as he began to make retching sounds at the back of my throat. I scrunched my nose in disgust when it spat out the fish's tail end out onto Hiccup's lap, saliva and all.

'Ew.' I grimaced. Hiccup didn't seem too enthusiastic about it either.

The Night Fury fell back onto its back legs, it's front paws resting comfortably on its knees as it looked down at Hiccup expectantly. When neither of us moved, its eyes flickered between the fish and Hiccup, making bile rise up in the back of my throat as I caught on to what he wanted.

'He wants you to eat it.' I murmured to Hiccup, not taking my eyes off the dragon.

'I got that.' He said.

'Please don't eat it.' I pleaded, not too sure if I'd be able to stomach the sight of him eating raw fish covered in dragon saliva.

'I don't think I have a choice.' He hissed back, just as the dragon looked between the two of us curiously, before dropping its eyes back down at the fish expectantly.

I didn't have to look to know when Hiccup picked up the fish, the saliva managing to make it slimier than usual. I tried not to gag when Hiccup bit into the fish, making a very unenthusiastic sound of appreciation as he did so. I looked towards hi, and bit my lip to try and stop the giggle that bubbled up at the back of my throat, doubting that Hiccup would appreciate it if I started laughing at how pained he looked as he held the fish in his mouth, refusing to swallow it.

Hearing a gulping sound, I looked back to see the dragon nodding at the fish and my eyes widened. Realising what he was wanting. I closed my eyes, and grimaced once again as Hiccup groaned in protest before sighing out of his nose, and swallowing. Gulping down the raw fish. I refused to open my eyes until I felt something land in my lap, and even then I did so grudgingly. I looked down at the fish in my lap, the looked up at Hiccup pleadingly.

'Please don't make me do this.' I begged. He grimaced, looking slightly green around the face as he nodded towards the dragon.

'He's the one who wants you to.'

I looked over at the dragon, and felt my heart melt at the how hopeful he looked. He looked between me and the half eaten fish with innocently wide eyes, and I realised in that moment that I would never be able to say no to this dragon. And I thought I was bad with puppies.

Sighing, I looked down at the fish in apprehension. I grudgingly picked it up, already fighting back a gag at how cold and slimy it felt. I looked back at Hiccup, pleading with him once last time, but all he did was hold up his hands and shake his head.

'I did it, you do it.' I groaned again, but brought the fish up to my mouth. My nose wrinkling as I caught a whiff of the putrid smell.

I opened my mouth, and took the smallest bite I dared. Forcing myself not to spit it back out again, I looked back up at the dragon, gave him a pained smile, and swallowed the piece of fish as quickly as I could, not having any desire to wait around and chew it.

I shivered in disgust as I tried to forget about the ordeal. I looked back up at the dragon and gave him a weak smile, dropping the fish back onto my lap and wiped my hands on my leggings. The dragon tilted his head at me, then looked at Hiccup, trying to mimic the awkward smile my friend had on his face. At any other point I probably would have found this adorable and probably would have said something about it, but considering I was busy trying to keep the salmon in my stomach, I didn't think opening my mouth would have been a good idea for any of us.

I felt Hiccup shift besides me, and when I turned to him I felt my heart stop as I saw him pushing himself up onto his knees, pushing his hand up closer and closer to the Night Fury as if to pet him. My eyes widened, when, for a second, it looked like the dragon was going to let him. But at the last possible moment, he revealed his teeth and snarled at Hiccup, before turning and hurrying away to the other side of the cove.

Hiccup and I shared a look, neither of us really understanding what just happened.

'Come on!' He urged, hurrying to his feet and practically pulled me up with him. Not giving me a chance to stand by myself, and causing the fish to fall off my lap with a sickening splat.

He pulled me along behind him, following the path the Night Fury took until we came upon him burning the earth beneath him, before he settled himself down on the charred earth. Looking pretty happy with himself as he did so. Hiccup let go of my hand as he dropped himself in front of the dragon, sitting cross legged as he watched the dragon try to sleep. I choose to settle myself on the boulders behind Hiccup, leaving him to his own devices, and feeling slightly impressed by how many boulders managed to fit inside such a small cove.

Feeling my friends eyes on him, the dragon lifted his head from the ground and glared irritably at Hiccup as he waved. I snorted when the dragon narrowed its eyes, then lifted his hindquarters. Bringing his back legs around into a more comfortable position to bring his tail around and hide his face with his tail fin.

'Think he's trying to tell you something?' I snickered. Hiccup's turned to face me, and glared.

'Shut up!' I stuck my tongue out at him in retaliation. 'Real mature.' He sighed, rolling his eyes. I managed to catch the small smile tugging at his lips, before he turned back to the dragon.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he used his hand to drag himself closer to the dragon. I watched curiously as he reached out and tried to touch the Night Fury's tail, before he jumped up in surprise when the tail was wrenched upwards to reveal a glaring dragon, who huffed irritably at him. Hiccup quickly walked away from the dragon and made his way towards me, trying to look as normal as possible, but inevitably failing. Seeing this, the dragon rolled his eyes and forced himself up onto his feet. Slouching over a tree in one of the darkest parts of the cove. By now the sun was setting, and as night fell it started getting colder.

Hiccup nudged my foot, taking my attention away from the tired dragon, and nodded over to the edge of the lake, where the sun was still shining.

'Come on, let's leave him for a while.' I pushed myself down off my boulder, stumbling slightly as I did so. Hiccup reached out and grabbed my arm, steadying me. I smiled in thanks.

'We should probably just come back another day.' I suggested, keeping my voice low so that we didn't disturb the dragon. Hiccup shook his head.

'Not just yet. I want him to get used to us.' He glanced over at the sleeping dragon, who was now hung upside down from one of the low branches, his head only just avoiding brushing the floor. 'If he doesn't do anything by nightfall we'll head back.'

He reached down and grabbed my hand, I idly realised we seemed to be holding hands quite a lot to today. Not that I was complaining. He pulled me over to a small slab of stone beside the lake which he promptly sat down on, then dragged me down beside him. Not feeling too comfortable on the stone I slid down onto the floor by his legs, and lent my back up against him, stretching my legs out in front of me as I looked out at the lake, feeling oddly relaxed while being in the presence of a very dangerous dragon. I lent my head back and smiled, letting the dying sun warm my face.

' _This has been a very good day.'_ I thought.

I felt Hiccup shift behind me and sat forward a bit so that he could move around more easily. Looking back, I watched as he reached down and grabbed a nearby stick, before using it to poke at the ground, drawing various shapes and figures in the dirt. I smiled softly at the sight.

Hoping that I wouldn't disturb him, I turned back around and leant my back up against his legs once more and closed my eyes. At one point, I felt him lay a hand on my head, gently playing with several stands of red hair that had fallen out of my poorly done plait. I had done my hair in a hurry this morning, so it didn't end up being as neat as it usually was.

I don't know how long we had sat there for, but by the time my ears heard the soft rustling of something approaching, the sun had almost completely set behind the trees. I lifted my head slightly, not disturbing the hand in my hair, and watched curiously as the Night Fury crept over to us until he was siting over Hiccup's shoulder and looking down at the image he had been drawing, purring in curiosity as he did so.

This caught Hiccup's attention, causing him to stop drawing and sit up straighter so that the dragon could get a better look at the drawing, pulling his hand from my hair as he did so. Now free from his hand, I turned around to see what had caught the dragon's attention, and smiled when I saw the portrait of the dragon.

My smile turned into a laugh when said dragon bounded off towards an overhanging tree, and pulled down one of the thick branches, and wrapped his mouth around its middle. He kind of reminded me of my sisters puppy Dodger, whenever he tried picking up something that was way too big for its mouth.

Getting up onto his hind legs, and shifting the branch so that he held the end closer to the leaves, he began dragging the bare end through the dirt and making vague patterns in the ground. When he got close to us, he stopped for a moment and looked down at my legs and huffed, his eyes adorably wide. When I didn't move, he huffed again, which made me quickly pull my knees up to my chest, giving the enthusiastic dragon enough room to shuffle past, dragging his big stick along with him.

I stood behind Hiccup on the rock, watching in amazement as the dragon continued to move about the cove in a mixture of twirls, and quick dashes. Hiccup looked up at me, looking completely baffled when the Night Fury paused for a second to look over at us, then turned back to his work where he dotted the ground, before he continued his work.

When he had finished, the Night Fury threw down his stick so he could survey his work properly. He gave a nod and growled happy, clearly pleased with his work. He looked over at us, the happiness never fading from his face as he watched us look over his art work.

Hiccup stood, doing a full circle as he looked on at the dragons' art in complete amazing. I watched as, in an attempt to see the entirety of the work, Hiccup tried to cross over one of the many lines, but instead of stepping over it, he stepped directly on one of the curves making the dragon stretch back his lips into a snarl. Startled by the sudden change in attitude Hiccup quickly stepped back, and the moment his foot had stepped off the piece of art, the dragon relaxed his snarl and gave a content purr.

Hiccup turned and gave me a look of complete disbelief, and turned back to the dragons' art work and stepped on the line again. Just as it happened the first time, the dragon snarled at the sight but the moment Hiccup pulled his foot back, he relaxed and gave a happy purr. Hiccup tried this a few more times, each time earning a snarl and a purr from the dragon at the appropriate moments. Deciding not to push his luck, Hiccup's next step made carefully over the line, which made the Night Fury sit up straighter and tilt his head ever so slightly as he watched Hiccup carefully step over each line, almost as though he was performing some kind of dance for us.

I watched in careful wonderment as Hiccup got closer and closer to the dragon, but the dragon didn't move. Instead, he just sat there, watching in interest as Hiccup got closer and closer to him, until Hiccup stepped back into his chest. I bit my lip nervously. Not too sure how the dragon would react.

Hiccup turned around slowly and looked up at the dragon, who was now quite relaxed with how close Hiccup was too him. I held my breath as Hiccup slowly raised an arm outright, his palm held out flat, as he turned his head away from the dragon. Letting him make the first move.

My heart just about melted, when, after a few second of staring at Hiccup's hand, the Night Fury gently pressed his snout into Hiccup's palm, his eyes closing as he let himself trust Hiccup. I didn't need to see Hiccup's face to know how happy he was right now.

The dragon pulled away from Hiccup and sniffed softly. The two stared at each other, before the Night Fury evidently decided that he'd had enough for one day and turned away from Hiccup and hurried off back to his tree.

Once the dragon was out of sight, Hiccup turned to me, looking as though he couldn't believe what had just happened, happened. I smiled wildly, feeling ridiculously proud of him. Hiccup. The person everyone in the tribe called useless, had just done the impossible, and had befriended a dragon. If only they could see him now.

* * *

Once the sun had set, Hiccup and I had to hurry back to the village. Both of us forgetting that Hiccup actually had a lesson that evening with Gobber and the others. I left him at the foot of the Watch Tower, which Gobber had decided would be a good place to have their evening session. After promising to see him the next day, I hurried back to my house, and decided on having an early night. Not really having anything planned for dinner since I gave Hiccup my fish.

Even though my plan had been to get an early nights sleep, I didn't end up falling asleep until the early hours of the morning. My mind still reeling from the day's events. Did that really happen? Did we really get that close to a dragon?

The next day I was convinced it had been a dream. But just as I had been about to run off and find Hiccup to make sure it had all been real, Gothi had appeared at my door. Foot tapping as she looked up at me expectantly. It was then I realised I had fallen behind on my work, and scrambled to come up with an excuse for the tiny elder. When I couldn't give her a decent excuse (I couldn't exactly tell her I was making friends with a Night Fury), she used her walking stick to pull my head down to her level so she could latch onto my ear and pull me all the way up to her hut. Completely ignoring my protests and cries of pain.

I was pretty sure we had must have looked an interesting sight as we made our way through the village, somehow managing to come across the few Vikings still left behind. I knew they were going to be laughing about it for the next several days. My rounds would definitely be an interesting experience.

Once at Gothi's hut I was put to work. Taking stock, making the various salves and tonics we were running low on, folding clean bandages and making sure the herbs were in their right containers. Once that had all been done, Gothi forced me in front of several of her own written works and made me catch up on the three days' worth of reading that I had missed out on (I cursed the dragons then for the raid the other day), only letting me take a break to eat a bowl of her stew for lunch, before making sure I got today's reading done as well. By the time I was done reading, I had four pages worth of words I didn't understand for Hiccup to translate for me. I silently cursed myself for not picking up the written language as quickly as I had the spoken.

The last thing Gothi had me do before letting me go off to do my own thing, was make sure my rounds were done. Several Viking had been complaining about stitches getting itchy, or were requesting more pain medication. Thankfully only a few Vikings were too injured to go off on Stoicks quest to find the Dragon's nest, which meant I didn't have to work for too long.

But by the time I had finally finished, the sun had started to set, and I still hadn't checked in with Hiccup. Who, if I had my days right, had today and tomorrow off from Dragon Training. Gobber saying he had orders piling up in the forge he wanted to get done before Stoicks party came home.

Figuring I would find Hiccup with the Night Fury, I ran off into the forest to find them. Wanting to see the two at least once before I turned in for the night. I clutched my medicine bag to my side, making sure it didn't fall off my belt as I ran further into the forest, jumping over several rocks and logs with a lot more grace than I thought I was capable of and knew no one would believe it possible if I recounted this to them.

But of course, fate had a funny way of screwing me over, and the moment I started to get more confident in my steps, I managed to trip over a hidden tree root and went flying forward. I stumbled around for a moment, trying to catch myself, but ended up falling to the ground and managed to skid forward in the mud for several feet before coming to a stop.

'Damn.' I cursed, pushing myself up onto my knees and looking down at my now mud stained clothes. I was pretty sure my face wasn't that much better. I groaned as I pushed myself to my feet. Great. Now I have more washing to do. I checked my hip and sighed when I realised my bag was still attached to my belt.

I frowned, looking up from inspecting the damage when I heard an unfamiliar cry break through the trees. I tilted my head as I tried to figure out if I had imagined it or not. Just when I thought I was losing it, I heard the cry again. I looked around trying to figure out where it came from, whatever it was, it sounded like it was in pain.

The next time I heard the cry, I shot off in the direction I hoped it came in, praying that I wasn't walking into a trap. I had to stop a few times until I heard the cry again, just to make sure I wasn't heading in the opposite direction.

I found the source of the noise when I reached the top of a steep ridge, and had stopped to take my breath. An attempt that had proved useless when my breath ended up being caught in my throat when I saw perhaps one of the biggest dragons I had ever seen, caught in an old Viking trap.

'Oh, my god.' I breathed. Unable to think or do anything else.

* * *

 **A/N - I'm really on a roll here! If things go to plan, the next chapter will even be up by next Wednesday. I'm really enjoying writing this, and I'm hoping your guys are enjoying reading this just as much. Please feel free to let me know if I make any mistakes, I really appreciate constructive criticism, but also, please let me know if you're enjoying . Also, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send me a Private Message, I'll be more than happy to reply to anything you have to say.**

 **But to my fabulous reviewer MMM, I have the answer to several of your questions now - Firstly, I'd like apologise for not answering them sooner, I completely forgot to do this in the last chapter, and hope you can forgive me.**

 **And secondly, I have considered doing the TV series as well as the second movie, and am already planning ahead for them. And after sitting down with a few of my friends, I have finally come to a decision on what dragon to give Hazel. It may not be the first choice of many, but I wanted to give her one that wasn't completely unique to her person, but as well, I wanted to give her one that made her stand out a bit, and one that fitted her needs and personality. I'll reveal everything I can in the next chapter, and will explain why I chose this particular dragon in my next authors note.  
Hazel won't be going on every adventure with Hiccup, as I believe there are several he needs to do by myself, and I do not want to take that away from him. But I will be sending her off with the others quite often. And concerning changing POV's, I'm not overly sure. I guess it depends if I feel like it would be better if people saw everything from a particular person's POV, instead of Hazel just hearing about it second hand.**

 **I hope that covers everything, and I hope you like this chapter!**

 **Until next time guys,  
xxxWelshGirl4Lifexxx**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N - I Don't Own How To Train Your Dragon. Also, extra information about Hazel's dragon will be posted at the bottom of the chapter, if any of you want to find out more, including the species of the Dragon.**

* * *

I scrambled down the ridge as quickly, and as silently, as possible. Barely taking my eyes off the injured dragon. It's wings had been pinned to its side by the barbaric looking trap. Chains had wrapped themselves around its body, and refused to budge even the slightest bit as the dragon struggled weakly against the restraints.

Its orange eyes locked on me as I approached, making me freeze in my steps when it growled warningly. Thrashing harder against its restraints in an attempt to escape, growling louder and louder the longer I stayed where I was. When I didn't move, it started to calm down, and while it didn't stop growling, it did quieten down somewhat, andit did stop attempting to shake off the chains. I swallowed thickly when it moaned in pain, closing its eyes as it forgot about me in favour of whatever pain it was in. I decided then that there was no way I was going to leave him alone.

I hurried over to his head, stopping midway when his eyes snapped open once more, growling as he tried to warn me off. I took a deep breath and raised my hands, trying to show him I meant no harm. I took several, slow steps forward, ignoring his growls.

'Shhh. Shhh, it's okay. It's okay, don't panic. I'm not going to hurt you.' I made sure to speak softly, keeping my eyes on hisas I tried not to startle him. I stepped closer to his head, wanting to remove the chain that wrapped around the majority of his head in a mess of twists and knots.

The only part of his body that had escaped being chained was his tail. It was clear that whoever made this trap hadn't anticipated a dragon his size, as evident by how much ithad cut into his dark green scales. I could see patches of dried blood in several places along his body, as well as several fresh wounds. I frowned as I tried to think of how I would get at them, not too sure if I would be allowed to climb up onto his back.

I lowered myself down by his head, hands still raised as I turned my eyes back to his. His orange eyes were narrowed as he watched me cautiously.

'It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you.' I cooed once more, bringing a hand down closer to his snout. Stopping just before I actually touched him, trying to gauge his reaction. He narrowed his eyes even further but didn't move. 'I want to help you.' I tried again, holding his gaze steadily.

He huffed, and sent a puff of smoke billowing out from his nose, reminding me that he was the one with the fire power, and closed his eyes. I sighed in relief, and, with my heart racing, finally brought my hand down to rest on his uncovered snout, rubbing gently at the dark grey scales that were a stark contrast against the green of his body. I frowned when I felt a hard, rough patch in the middle of his snout. Removing my hand, I found a small, round, lump protruding from his scales, only just darker than his face. I ran a finger over its smooth surface, and my frown deepened when I realised it must have been the location of another, but smaller horn, similar to the two protruding out of the side of his head.

'What happened to you?' I sighed, looking at him sadly.

He opened his eyes and huffed softly. His orange eyes looking much softer now as helooked pleadingly at me to end his pain. 'I know, I know. I'll do my best to help you. I don't want to hurt you. I'll try not to hurt you.' I said softly, following one of the longer chains with my free hand until it fell out of reach. I let my hand fall from his snout and shuffled across on my knees as I followed the chain line until I found where the end had been buried.

I clawed through the dirt with my hands, not wanting to waste any time. Whenever I managed to pull loose a considerable amount of dirt, I'd pull on the chain, hoping it would come free without me digging right down to the source. But all it got me was an agitated growl from the dragon when the chain pulled even tighter against him.

It wasn't until the sky had grown darker, that I had finally been able to find the end of the chain. It had been wrapped tightly around some kind of weight, which explained why it had refused to budge every time I had tried to releaseit. I lay out on my stomach, getting into a better position so that I could shove my hands down into my poorly dug hole to unwrap the chain from its weight. The dragons' growls growing in frequency every time I miss-judged a knot.

'I'm sorry! It's been tied pretty tight, and I can't really see it. I'm trying. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry!' He grumbled at my apology, then went silent for the time being.

I didn't get another growl from him unless I pulled pretty hardon a particularly stubborn knot, but each tug was quickly followed by an apology. Releasing the chain was a slow process, the dark sky meant I was mainly going by touch, and was basically guessing most of the time as to what part had come loose and could be pulled free, and what part had been double looped and meant I had to back track a bit to release it. I had to admit, however grudgingly it was, that whoever had done this had been pretty efficient with their job.

'Ha!' I exclaimed in victory, when the chain finally fell from the weight. I pulled the chain from the hole and dropped it to the floor by my feet, keeping it a decent distance from the hole so that it didn't fall back in.

I shuffled back over to the dragon, still on my knees, but now smiling happily. The dragon, picking up on my excitement, perked up slightly, his tail wagging behind him, stirring up fallen leaves and dry grass, as he waited for me to remove the chains.

I carefully eased the chains from his snout, and from the top of his head. I had a bit of a struggle removing the chain links from the few spikes lining his forehead. And thanked god that the two large horns that sprouted from either side of his head seemed to have avoided being damaged. But unfortunately, the chain around its neck was completely different to the one I had just freed. And I knew that it was going to take even longer to try and release him from it.

Once released of the chains, he lifted his head a few inches off of the ground (the chains on his neck restricting his movement), and opened his large mouth as wide as possible. I tried not to think about how easy it would be for him to swallow me whole if he decided to turn on me. I winced as several of his bones cracked, having been bound tight and not used for a while. He closed his mouth with a snap, whining in pain as he dropped his head back down onto the ground.

The dark marks running across his snout made my heart drop, until I had more light I wouldn't be able to look at the extent of the damage. But I knew I had to at least clean them tonight. But to do that I'd have to run back to the village to gather more supplies. I had various salves in my little bag butI didn't want to use them on the dragon in case he had some form of allergic reaction to them. I didn't even know if dragons could have an allergy to some things.

'I need to run back home.' I sighed, softly stroking the uninjured part of his snout as an apology. I sighed again and stood to my feet, looking down at him with sad eyes. I wasn't too sure if he could understand what I was saying, but at the least I figured he understood my tone and brought his tail down to my feet, and wrapped the tip of his tail around my ankle. 'I'll be right back.' I promised. 'I need to get a few things if I'm going to be able to help get you out of here. I promise I won't be long.'

The grip his tail had on my ankle tightened for a moment, before relaxing and curling itself around its body. He whined sadly and widened his eyes in his own version of puppy dog eyes.

'I'll try not to be too long.' I promised once more, and turned from him. Knowing if I looked at him any longer I would never leave. I ignored the sad whines as I climbed back up the ridge, and ran off through the forest.

I ran all the way back to my house, thankful that it was at the edge of the Village so I wouldn't be asked why I was in such a hurry, or why I was out so late. I practically flew into my house, my door banging so hard off of my wall that I was surprised it didn't come off of its hinges.

I threw the bucket I used for washing my dishes onto my kitchen table, knowing it would hold more water than the standard buckets I had lying around the place. I dashed into my bedroom to grab the gigantic shirt Hiccup had borrowed the other night, as well as the spare blanket I kept folded up in the corner. Already making plans on the best way to rip them apart to make bandages.

I hurried back into the main room, only to shriek and drop my things as I clamped one hand to my mouth, and used the other to grab at my chest as I tried to still my racing heart.

'And just where have you been?' My best friend question, his arms crossed over his chest, and his left foot tapping the floor as he glared at me sternly.

'What the hell Hiccup!' I exclaimed, dropping the hand on my mouth. 'What are you even doing here?'

'"What the HelHiccup"?' I reeled back in surprise, not expecting the anger that erupted from him. 'I think you mean "What the Hel Hazel"? I've looked everywhere for you. No one knew where you were! Not even Gothi! The last time anyone saw you was during your rounds. Do you have any idea how long it's been since then?' I opened my mouth to answer, but couldn't even utter a syllable when Hiccup blurted out 'Hours!' Throwing his hand into the air as he tried to emphasis his point.

'I am allowed to leave the house. You do know that right? And not just to help Gothi and spend time with you.'

'You never leave the house!' He cried, eyes going wide as he stared at me in disbelief. 'What the Hel were you doing? You've been gone for hours, but you won't tell me where or why. You're covered in dirt, despite being the cleanest Viking I know. And now you look like you're going out again! Where were you?'

'Are you finished?' I asked, bending down to pick up the fallen fabrics and dumping them on the table next to my bucket.

'I – What?' I smiled calmly at Hiccup as he looked at me in confusion.

'Good. Can you go get me a basket of fish? A big basket now, not a small one.' I turned around and started looking for one of my bigger bag so that I'd be able to carry things far easier.

'What?' Hiccup asked, sounding even more confused if that was possible.

'Meet me behind the house once you're done, but please be quick. I promised I wouldn't be too long.' I smiled up at him as I shoving the blanket and shirt into my bag.

'Promised who?' I rolled my eyes and left the table, walking over to Hiccup and started pushing him out the door.

'I'll show you, but you need to get the fish for me.' He forced us to a stop and looked at me in concern.

'Do you know how late it is? Hazel if someone is forcing you –'

'He's not forcing me, I can promise you that.' His eyebrows shot up into his hairline.

'He?' He squeaked. I rolled my eyes.

'Yes. He. Now please hurry up, I promise I'll tell you everything.' He studied me carefully as I pleaded with him. For a moment, I thought he would say no, but he eventually sighed and nodded reluctantly.

'Alright fine.' I sighed in relief. 'But you have to tell me everything.'

'Of course.' I nodded, grinning widely at him. 'But you need to hurry!' He nodded finally, and turned to make his way to the docks for the fish. 'And a shovel! Don't forget a shovel.' I called as an afterthought. He stopped, and looked back at me. I couldn't see his face, but I had a feeling he was getting a bit concerned about what I was hiding from him.

I just raised a hand in a wave, then shut the door on him. Wanting to get back to packing my bag.

* * *

I met Hiccup behind my house not all that long after he had left, before meeting him however, I had made sure to grab a knife and filled my bucket with fresh water from the village source. It wasn't hot water, but it was better than nothing at this point. He had kept his promise, and had come back with big basket full of fish strapped to his back and a shovel in one hand, and had even gone out of his way to grab a lantern to light our way.

I led the way through the forest to the hidden dragon, having to stop several times to try and gather my bearings. Hiccup, despite his undying curiosity, made known by how much he looked around whenever we had to stop (and how disappointed he looked every time we moved on), barely asked any questions. Only ever asking if we were heading in the right direction, or if I was sure we should be doing this, this late at night.

'He's just over here.' I finally announced, much to Hiccup's relief.

We hurried up to the top of the ridge, me keeping a tight grip on my water bucket, being extra careful to make sure that no water sloshed over the side. I looked at Hiccup expectantly, wanting to see his reaction, and laughed quietly when his eye bulged out of his skull and his jaw dropped.

'Now do you forgive me?' I asked, feeling pretty smug that I had managed to surprise him for the first time in a while. I watched as he struggled for words, his mouth opening and closing comically as he took in green dragon, who was now watching us carefully as we conversed. 'You alright there?'

'How?' Was all he asked. I shrugged as well as I could with the bucket in my hands.

'I heard him crying out for help when I was heading to meet up with you and your dragon.' I explained, looking down at the dragon with a sad smile. 'He's been caught in a trap, but I was only able to release the chains around his mouth. I was hoping to find you and ask for your help with the rest. I didn't want to wait until morning, I didn't want to risk him causing more damage.'

'And he let you approach?' I raised an eyebrow, not understanding his question. 'Injured dragons aren't exactly the nicest creatures.'

'It helped that I wasn't carrying a weapon.' I smirked, nudging him forward. 'Come on, we've wasted enough time.'

I followed behind Hiccup carefully, as we made our way down the narrow ledge that ran along the ridge. I thanked every god I knew, that whatever balance I actually possessed managed to hold true, and I didn't end up falling over thin air, and somehow managed to keep the entire contents of my bucket, inside the bucket. A feat I believe should have won me a gold medal.

By the time we reached the forest floor, the dragon was on high alert. Clearly not liking the fact that I had brought an unfamiliar human into his presence. He growled darkly, his eyes locked on Hiccup. His mouth was pulled back into a snarl, every single one of his razor-sharp teeth on display. We slowed our approach, me walking slightly in front of Hiccup to try and show that he meant no harm, but when the dragon decided we had gotten close enough, his mouth started sparking in warning.

We stopped, and watched as the sparks went out and dark coloured smoke billowed out of his mouth. Causing the dragon to hack painfully. My heart clenched at the sight. I looked back at Hiccup, silently pleading for him to stay where he was, and gently placed my bucket at his feet.

I turned back to the dragon, my hands raised as I approached slowly. 'It's just me, I'm not going to hurt you. Let me help you. Let us help you.' The dragon whined pathetically as I crept closer, and pushed his snout further into my hand when I was finally close enough to touch him. I ran my hand along his snout softly, still speaking calmly to him. 'He's my friend, and he's going to help me get you out of here. I won't let him hurt you.'

The dragon closed his eyes and tried pushing his snout even further into my hand, his nostrils flaring slightly as he cooed. I smiled.

'Amazing.' I heard Hiccup breath. I looked towards him and smiled even wider at the look of awe on his face.

'Looks like you're not the only one who's good with dragons.' I chuckled, still speaking softly.

I stepped away from the dragon so that I would be able to speak to Hiccup without having to strain my ears, trusting the dragon to not attack either of us now that I had stepped away from him. I did send the dragon a small smile to reassure him, when he let out a pitiful whine the further I stepped away from him. You'd swear he was a lost puppy, rather than a fully-grown dragon.

'I think you've managed to find a completely new species.' Hiccup breathed once I was in front of him.

'You think so?' Hiccup nodded slowly, he eyes raking up and down the dragon as he studied it as carefully as he could in what little lighting we had.

'I've never seen anything like him. And I'm pretty sure the Book of Dragons doesn't say anything about his kind either.' My shoulders slumped as I looked back at the dragon. 'Is that a problem?'

'Of course not!' I denied, looking back at Hiccup sharply. 'But if the Book of Dragons had anything on him, then I'd have an easier job in healing him.'

'You do know the book only talks about ways to kill them right?' He pointed out. I rolled my eyes.

'By describing their weaknesses. If I knew his, I'd know what to avoid.' I sighed, looking back at the dragon sadly.

'You'll figure it out. You're a brilliant healer. Just follow what your instincts tell you, and I seriously doubt you'll cause any more damage.' I brightened up slightly and turned back to Hiccup with a raised eyebrow and a smile.

'You think so?' He shrugged.

'I've never seen otherwise.' My grin widened. I rarely got praised for my healing abilities.

'Thank you.' I said softly, my grin never wavering. 'Now let's get that shovel to work. Can you find where the chains end?' He nodded, and shrugged off the basket of fish so that it rested against the ground next to my water bucket. 'While you work on freeing the chains, I'll do my best to clean him up and keep him calm.'

'I can't see you having any trouble with that.' Hiccup admitted, smiling crookedly. 'He seems to like you.'

'Here's hoping.' I bent down and lifted my bucket up into my arms. 'Try not to hurt yourself.'

'Out of the two of us, you're more likely to get hurt.' Hiccup scoffed. I narrowed my eyes at him, not impressed with his dig at my clumsiness. 'Take the lantern with you. You need it more than me.'

'You sure?' He shrugged.

'I'm the one with the shovel. I'll have a better chance improvising than you.' With one last shrug, he walked off to follow the chains, not giving me a chance to properly reply.

Him walking off did kick me into gear however, as I realised that my patient was in a less than stellar condition. I placed the bucket down by his head before going back for the lantern, thankful that I now had some extra light, especially since it was clear that the dragon's fire breathing ability had been affected. Whether from the chains restricting him, or from a previous injury I had yet to find out. I knelt down by his head, the dragon cooing softly as I shrugged my backpack off of my back.

'I know sweetie, I know. We're going to help you though, I promise.' I gave his snout a gentle rub, before grabbing my spare blanket and knife from my bag.

Using the knife, I tore the blanket into large strips, mindful that the dragon was watching me carefully. Moving slowly so that he could see clearly what I was doing, I put the knife back into my bag, keeping the only weapon I had brought with me well out of the way. I folded the strips of fabric into smaller squares and rested them on top of my bag to keep them from getting dirty, then dunked one strip in the water before ringing it out.

'I'll try to be gentle.' I promised the dragon, knowing I wouldn't be able to do much tonight, but also knowing that I this might sting.

I dabbed gently at the dry blood on his head, quickly wiping away the stray bead of water before they got into his eyes. By the time I managed to clean the dry blood away from him wounds, the first of the chains fell loose around his neck. I nodded to Hiccup in thanks and asked him to release the chain from the dragons' neck while I tackled the wounds themselves, knowing I'll be able to keep the dragons' attention away from Hiccup long enough for him to be released.

The dragon growled and tried moving his head out of my reach, as I dabbed my cloth on his still somewhat fresh wounds. I tapped his snout with my hand, silently scolding him, and raised an eyebrow when he glared at me. Daring him to try anything. With a disgruntled huff, he moved his head back into position, grumbling and growling as I carried on with my work. He did try moving his head further away from me every time I went to clean my cloth, trying to avoid my eyes as I sat waiting for him to get back into position. He was the one who was making the situation worse, I'd wait all night if I had too. But one way or another I was going to clean him up.

While I cleaned up his head, Hiccup managed to remove one chain from his neck with minimal fuss from the dragon. If the dragon was bothered by it, he didn't try doing anything to Hiccup, and instead lay sulking as I cleaned him up.

I switched cloth at I moved onto the top half of his neck, wiping away at the dry blood and cleaning his wounds, as Hiccup worked on removing the chain from his lower neck and upper body. The dragon, now having more mobility with his neck turned his head so that he could watch the two of us as we worked. Giving the occasional growl whenever I brushed against a particularly tender spot.

Hiccup and I worked at a fairly decent pace, with Hiccup double checking with me before he went to remove a chain, and only moving to the opposite side of the dragon if I was there already. But by the time we reached the dragons' torso, the candle was almost burnt out, making me dread the moment when I'd have to continue my work in the dark.

I abandoned my cloths' for a moment to help Hiccup remove the chain from around the dragons' body. Having decided that we'd do the last two together so that the dragon could try to release his wings in one go. We tried working as quickly as possible, wanting to keep the dragons' pain as minimal as possible. As the chains got looser, the dragon was able to lift his body up enough for us to slide the thick chains under his belly. The process went by a lot faster once the dragon was able to work with us.

Once the last of the chains fell from his body, Hiccup and I stood back, allowing the dragon to slowly stretch his wings to their full size. Several bones clicked painfully caused me to wince, and I was almost certain I hear Hiccup groan in sympathy. His wings stretched out further than any dragon I had ever seen, and, with the added size of his body, he's ended up being the _largest_ dragon I had ever seen. Once the bones in his wings had stopped cracking, the dragon stood up on his only two legs, and lifted himself upright, revealing his yellowish underbelly, as he stretched out his body. Crooning happily when several bones popped in his back.

'Oh my Thor.' Hiccup breathed, coming to stand next to me as we were dwarfed by this colossus dragon. His hand brushed against mine, and I resisted the urge to grab it as my heart started pounding furiously in my chest at the sight before me. 'You had to be the one to find the biggest dragon ever.'

'Jealous?' I smirked. Hiccup scoffed.

'I am very happy with Toothless, thank you very much.' I raised an eyebrow, and turned my head to look at him.

'Toothless? Really?' He shrugged, barely looking at me before looking back at the stretching dragon. 'I think it's cute.' I admitted, turning back to the dragon as it lowered itself back down to the ground, shaking itself as it did so, looking over at us happily, his tail wagging once again. 'You're one of a kind aren't you?' I murmured.

I stepped away from Hiccup and approached the dragon once more. He lowered himself back down onto his belly, and pushed his snout into my stomach, making me giggle when he growled softly. I stroked his snout softly, being careful around the stub of his missing horn.

'For someone so Colossus, you definitely know how to play the innocent puppy card don't you?' He snorted, and pushed his snout even further into my hands. 'I bet your hungry, aren't you?' I asked softly, nodding at Hiccup to grab the basket of fish. It was time for my best friend to gain his trust. 'It's okay, he's not going to try anything.' I promised, when Colossus growled in warning as Hiccup approached with the food.

I moved to stand by the side of his head, as Hiccup, without taking his eyes off the newly named dragon, dropped the basket to the ground, and opened its lid, allowing the fish to tumble out onto the ground in a wet, slimy pile. Colossus looked at me curiously, and after receiving a nod, he stretched out his neck and took a single fish, swallowing it down in one gulp. He looked at Hiccup and I carefully, and when we didn't move, he dove in, devouring the entire basket in less than ten seconds.

He licked around his lips happily, nuzzled my side, then nudged Hiccup gently in his side, before sitting back on his legs and looking at us curiously. He brought his wings round in front of him, and now that I was seeing them up close, I noticed two hooks at the ends of his wings, that he dug into the ground, using them as balance, almost like another set of feet.

'We have to go now boy, it's getting late.' Colossus cooed sadly, and dropped his head to look me in the eyes plead. 'I'll come back tomorrow.' I smiled sadly, patting him gently. 'I promise.'

I heard Hiccup starting to gather up our stuff, and went to go and help him when Colossus wrapped his tail around my leg, causing me to stumble.

'Colossus.' I said warningly. But the dragon only ducked his head down lower in an effort to appear cuter. 'That doesn't work me.' I tried pulling his tail free, but he wouldn't budge. I sighed in frustration and put my hands on my hips. 'If you don't let me go now, I won't bring any fish tomorrow.' He hesitated, before releasing my leg. Turning his head away from me, sulking, as he flopped back down onto his belly. 'Don't be like that.'

I walked around to where his head had dropped, but every time I got closer to him, he'd shuffle further away from me, refusing to so much as look at me. I groaned in frustration, and instead patted his side, hoping to get some kind of reaction from him.

'I promise that I'll be back tomorrow.' I pressed a quick kiss to his side, and gave him one last pat, before hurrying over to where Hiccup had gathered all our things and slung by backpack over my shoulders, and gathered the bucket of now dirty water into my arms. Colossus growled softly, gaining my attention.

Looking up, I noticed the dragon was now looking towards us sadly. Now knowing he had my attention, he shuffled over, and nuzzled his snout into my side, cooing softly as he looked up at me, his orange eyes wide, as he looked apologetically at me. I smiled softly, and scratched the dragon underneath his chin.

'I'll see you tomorrow Colossus.' I promised once more, before turning and leaving with Hiccup.

As we were climbing back up the ridge, I heard a thump, and turning back to my dragon, I realised he had dropped his head to the ground, and was now watching us go with sad eyes. I rolled my eyes. Life was definitely getting interesting around here.

* * *

'Soooo, Colossus?' I lifted my head to look at Hiccup in confusion. We had spent the entire walk back to mine barely speaking. Only ever saying something to warn the other about the root, or the loose rock we had just tripped over. I had managed to splash myself several times with the bloodied water on our way back.

'What about him?' I placed the bucket of water down onto my table, shrugging off my backpack before I went about lighting my fire. Thanking Hiccup as he passed me several logs and my flint to light the fire.

'Nothing, I was just curious about the name.' I dropped my flint, and pushed myself up onto my feet once the fire had been lit.

'I think it suits him.' I shrugged, fishing out the dirty rags from my bucket. Wringing out the water from each, before hanging them over my drying rack near the fire. Making a mental note to try washing them on my next free day. 'Is there a problem with it?'

'No! No, no. Of course not.' He denied. Lifting the bucket up to empty the water outside of my door. 'I guess it just surprised me. Do you think he's going to be okay?'

'Did you see the size of him? What dragon would be stupid enough to try taking him on?' I raised an eyebrow and looked at him expectantly.

'Good point.' He nodded, dropping the bucket down where I usually kept it on the table by the fire. 'Do you think we should have him and Toothless meet?' I finished stowing away my backpack in one of my smaller cupboards, wanting to keep it out of the way, and unhooked my medicine pouch from my belt, having not done it earlier, as I thought about his question.

'I'd need to find a way to get him to the cove. Unless you think you can get Toothless to us?' He shook his head, and crossed his arms over his chest as he leant against a wall.

'I still need a way to keep his prosthetic open.' My eyebrows shot up into my hairline.

'What prosthetic?' His eyes widened.

'That's what I wanted to tell you!' He exclaimed, pushing off the wall and grabbed my upper arms with his hands, shaking me slightly as his eyes lit up with excitement. 'We went flying today! Not far, but still! I flew a dragon! Sort of. I hung onto his tail for a while, before he tried shaking me off. But oh, my gods Hazel! It was amazing!' I laughed at his enthusiasm, admiring how his green eyes seemed to sparkle in excitement. And how his auburn hair turned a darker shade of red in the fire light.

'That sounds amazing!' I praised, feeling excitement brew up inside me for him. 'But how? What about this prosthetic?'

'I spent last night in the forge making him another tail fin. Gobber said something about making sure to hit a dragons' wing or tail, and once you did you'd have a downed dragon, and have yourself an easy kill.' I started, moving his hands around as he explained. 'I remembered you pointing out he only had one tail fin instead of two, like I thought, and figured that might have been why he couldn't fly. So I improvised with some materials, and made a new tail fin for him.'

'And it worked?' I asked in surprise. Not so much because I thought he couldn't do it, but more because it worked first go.

'Sort of.' He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. 'It wouldn't stay open unless I was holding it open.'

'Do you have an idea how to keep it open?' I asked. He shrugged.

'I don't know yet. I have a few ideas I want to try, so I guess we'll have to see.' I nodded in understanding.

'You staying here tonight?' I asked, stepping away from him to poke at the fire. Wanting to make sure it wouldn't completely die out during the night.

'I want to get to the forge tonight, and at least start on my next prototype before morning.' I looked at him in concern.

'You're not thinking about staying up all night?' I asked in concern, stepping away from the fire once I was satisfied with it. 'You have dragon training early tomorrow, and you can't be dead on your feet for that. Or you'll actually end up dead.'

'I won't be there long.' He promised. 'And if I'm not you have my permission to kill me before the dragon does.' I scoffed.

'Just for that, I'll let the dragon kill you instead.' He laughed. 'You better get going. Don't want to be caught by the night watch.'

'Sorry, about yelling at you earlier.' He said as he made his way for the door. I shrugged.

'It's cool. You were just worried.' I approached him before he could leave. 'But Hiccup?' He stopped, and looked at me worriedly. I pushed myself up onto my toes, and pressed my lips to his cheek. As I pulled away, I couldn't help smiling in amusement as I watched his cheeks flush. 'Thank you for helping me and Colossus. I'd probably still be there at sun rise if you hadn't.'

He shrugged sheepishly, and stuttered out an okay, before slowly backing out of my door. Coming up with various variations to accept my thank you, whilst still telling me he had to get to the forge. I laughed quietly to myself as I watched him go, I smiled wider when he seemed to have a hard time deciding whether he wanted to keep walking backwards so he could talk at me, or whether it would be safer to turn around.

I shook my head, and, when he was finally at a decent distance, closed my door. Looking forward to getting into bed, and ignoring how hot my cheeks felt.

Things were definitely becoming interesting around here.

* * *

 **A/N- So Hazel's dragon has been revealed. I decided to giver her a Typhoomerang, as I figured the dragon wasn't too obscure. And I figured with his size, and speed, he'd be able to help carting around any injured Vikings and dragons if necessary. Also, if some of you might think that that the dragon isn't exactly the right fit for that because of how they take off (The spiny thing they do that gives them their name), after a bit of looking around, I realised that they can take off normally as well, and from what I gathered, the spiny thing only happens when they want to take off at speed (I could be wrong, don't quote me on this). He will also be slightly smaller than most Typhoomerangs', so that will make things easier even then. I also will be making the naming of the species earlier than in the TV series where the dragon first shows up, I just haven't decided when as I am pretty sure I still want Fishlegs to do the naming. I know Hazel didn't finish cleaning him up, but since she had run out of light, I didn't think she'd want to risk it, and would rather continue looking at him during the day. I hope you all like Colossus anyway, I think he was being pretty cute.**

 **As for your questions:**

 **Guest: I'm not particularly fond of writing or reading song fics, for some reason I've just never been able to wrap my head around them like most people have. So I'm really sorry, but I won't be writing any song fics any time soon, but thank you so much for liking my writing style to think I'd be able to pull it off.**

 **MMM: Thank you so much for reviewing once again, but I'm afraid that answering most of your question will result in me spoiling the rest of the fic. I hope this chapter will answer some of your questions, but for the ones I can answer - I don't think she will train Colossus like Hiccup has with Toothless, if this chapter is anything to go by, but rather take away only a** **few things similar to how Hiccup trains Toothless. And as of now, Hazel does not have a middle name.**

 **Thank you so much to everyone else who reviewed, you have no idea how much I appreciate them. I'm over the moon with how much you guys are liking this fic, and hope you will all continue liking it as the story goes.**

 **Let me know what you guys think of this chapter, and hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon. That's if I don't drown under how many assignments I have left to finish before Christmas (oh joy).**

 **xxxWelshGirl4Lifexxx**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N - I Don't Own How To Train Your Dragon, and do not claim ownership over anything from the film that may seem familiar**

* * *

The next morning, I was woken by Gobber repeatedly banging on my front door, yelling at me to "get my butt into gear, and get down to the training arena as soon as possible". I didn't want to find out if there was an _or else_ somewhere amongst his yelling, but since Gobber was at least somewhat known for his creativity, I wouldn't put it past him to come up with some crazy, and probably painful, way to get me out of bed.

The walk to the arena felt a lot longer than normal, my eyes barely able to open out in the light, despite it not being too bright, since the sun was hiding behind a mass of grey clouds. My feet were barely able to carry me to work, and I wouldn't have been surprised if I looked like one of those Zombies my brother had been obsessed with. I didn't have the energy this morning to tie my hair back, so my red curls were sticking up in every direction possible, and I was sure I still had dried drool at the corner of my mouth.

I yawned as I passed through the arena's gates, my jaw cracking painfully when my mouth stretched too far. I barely registered Gobber greeting me, but somehow managed a half-hearted wave in return, just as Hiccup entered the arena as the last person to arrive. Looking even worse than me. I scowled at him when I realised Hiccup must have spent longer in the forge than he had promised. I'll definitely be having a word with him later.

'Today, we'll be working on teamwork.' Gobber announced, gathering the teens around him. 'I'll be putting you all into pairs, so no complaining and no switching!' I snickered when the twins and Snotlout complained, once again feeling glad I wasn't actually a part of the lesson. 'The pair who do the best, win!'

'What do we win?' Snotlout asked, now sounding excited about the lesson. The twins had quietened down on their complaining, and were looking at Gobber curiously. Fishlegs seemed to be shaking in excitement, and even Astrid looked mildly interested in what Gobber had to say.

'Eh, I hadn't thought about that.' Gobber admitted, scratching the back of his head with his good hand. 'Oh well! Now Astrid, you'll be with Ruffnut.' The girls nodded to each other, neither seeming to bothered by the pairing. 'Tuffnut with Snotlout.' Despite Snotlout rolling his eyes, neither reacted. Which I guess was better than nothing. 'And Fishlegs with Hiccup. Now all of you, grab a bucket of water each, then spread out! Stay close to your partner.'

I liked Fishlegs. Unlike how the other four would have reacted if they had been paired with Hiccup, Fishlegs just smiled at him, and hurried over to grab a bucket with his partner before rushing over to a corner of the arena, with Hiccup following along sluggishly behind him.

As he passed by, Hiccup smiled at me, his cheeks reddening slightly, before he picked up his pace to stand next to Fishlegs. His bucket clutched tightly in his arms. I smirked inwardly at the sight, my own cheeks warming slightly as well.

'As usual, Hazel will be nearby. But just because we have our own healer, does not mean you should be running into the dragons' jaws! Understand?' There were half-hearted shrugs and murmurs of agreements all around. 'Good.' Gobber nodded at me, silently letting me know I could go up to my usual seat in the viewing area.

I gave Hiccup a quick smile before hurrying to my place, not wanting to be caught in the chaos that was bound to happen next.

I had barely made it to my viewing area, when Gobber released the lock on today's dragons' cage. Barely a second went by, when the dragon locked inside realised it could now leave its cage. The moment it had realised this, the cage doors were blown open, and a cloud of greenish-grey smoke filled the arena, completely hiding the trainees and Gobber. I wrinkled my nose at the smell, glad that Gobber had decided that I was better off staying away from the arena floor.

'For those of you who don't know. A wet dragon head, can't light its fire.' Gobber started, his voice once again echoing around the arena. I couldn't understand why the dragons didn't go after him. He was loud enough to be an easy target. 'The Hideous Zippleback however, is trickier than most. One head breathes this explosive gas we can now see.' And smell I though dryly. 'While the other lights it. Today, you and your partner get to work out which one is which.'

I dropped my head with a groan. I was now more sure than ever that Gobber was trying to kill them. Why couldn't he just tell them which head did what, instead of just waiting for them to guess?

Because I couldn't actually see what was happening below us, I was only able to guess at what was happening based on whatever I was able to hear. For a short moment, it was completely silent, at least it was from where I stood. However, not long after Gobber's speech I heard to very disgruntled yelps coming from the only females in training.

'It us, you idiot!' Ruffnut cried. My guess was that someone had thrown their buckets of water at her and Astrid. By the yelps that followed, I figured those boys were Snotlout and Tuffnut, which, should have been the obvious assumption.

'Oh, I'm hurt!' I groaned when I heard Tuffnut yell. By now the cloud of gas was beginning to thin, and I was able to see Tuffnut make his was for the gate. 'I am very much hurt!'

'Make sure you see Hazel before you leave!' Gobber called after him, sounding too amused by the situation than he really should be.

Before I turned my attention to the approaching male twin, I was able to catch sight of a dragon head slithering its way towards Fishlegs and Hiccup. When Tuffnut finally reached me, I was forced to turn my attention to him, as he presented me with a bloodied leg from where the dragon had grabbed him. Thankfully the dragon's teeth hadn't sunk in far enough to cause any lasting damage, and that he'd be fine after a few weeks with several stitches.

At one point his sister joined us, rolling her eyes, and trying to convince me to hurt her male twin even more whenever I pulled my needle through his skin. I was pretty proud of how I held myself whilst I worked on Tuffnut. I didn't stab him through the eye with my needle when he kept trying to pull away from me, I didn't try sewing his mouth shut when he wouldn't stop whining (I understood it hurt, but Tuffnut liked to whine almost as much as Snotlout), I didn't tell Ruffnut she could go jump into the Monstrous Nightmare's cage when she wouldn't shut up, and I definitely did not flinch when I heard Gobber crying out for Fishlegs.

I had just finished off my final stitch, when I finally realised something was wrong. The entire arena had gone silent, excluding Ruffnut and Tuffnut that is. I sprang to my feet and hurried to look down into the arena, worried that something may have happened. But instead I found Hiccup standing in front of the Hideous Zipplebacks' cage, the doors now bolted shut, whilst Gobber, Astrid, Snotlout, and Fishlegs all looked at my best friend in complete bewilderment.

Hiccup pointed behind him, chuckling nervously as he took in everyone's confusion. Rubbing at the back of his neck, he started backing out of the arena, turning to face the others as he tried making some excuse as to why he was leaving early, before bolting out of the gates and off down the bridge. Everyone still down on the arena floor turned to look at me as if I could explain everything to them, but I just held up my hands and shook my head, not letting them ask whatever question I knew was coming. Tuffnut came up beside me, leaning on his sister as he tried keeping his weight off his bad leg.

'What happened? Why's everyone so quiet?' He asked. I wondered the same thing.

What the heck had Hiccup done?

* * *

I hadn't been able to run off after Hiccup once I had finished with Tuffnut. Gothi had turned up at the end of the lesson, whether to watch how things were going, or just making sure I was doing my work, she refused to tell me. But either way, once Gobber had dismissed the teens, she had dragged me up to her hut, using her walking stick to shove me in the right direction.

I hurried through the inventory check, which I had thought was completely useless since I had checked them yesterday. I was barely able to answer her questions about the piece of text she had me read the day before, and after a quick thump on my head from her stick, I was forced to re-read the chapters once again until I could answer her questions properly, and with a clear understanding on both theory and method.

Despite the fact that I read over the words far too quickly to actually understand them, I managed to just pass Gothi's second quiz, a fact both of us were surprised by, if her raised eyebrows and slight frown were anything to go by.

I was finally able to leave when I had hung up the newly cleaned bandages to dry, and practically ran all the way to the docks to grab a basket of fish for Colossus, figuring I had better feed the big baby before running off to find Hiccup. And since it meant I could look at Colossus' wounds in the daylight, I wasn't going to put it off any longer.

It was surprisingly easy to sneak off into the forest with a big basket of fish strapped to my back, but since I figured it was easier not to question it, I took my time navigating the forest. Taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of Berk, whilst also making sure I didn't send the fish flying everywhere.

I found Colossus already watching the ridge, waiting for me to stop by. The moment he caught sight of me, his tail started to wag, tossing leaves, twigs, and clumps of grass into the air. I smiled at how adorably happy he looked, and wondered how Vikings could have gone on killing dragons, if they looked even tiniest bit like mine.

Colossus bounded over to me as I made my way down the ridge. I had to push his head away, as he sniffed curiously at the basket on my back, not wanting to fall the rest of the way to the ground. I barely made it to the forest floor, before the dragon buried his head into my stomach, before he pulled back to look at me, his eyes wide with excitement.

'Someone's feeling better today.' I commented, stretching up a hand to scratch at his chin. He purred happily, and brought his head down lower so that I wouldn't have to stretch so far, his eyes closing as he let me fuss over him. 'Have you been careful today? You didn't go flying, did you? I probably should have said something yesterday, but hopefully you had enough sense not to try anything too strenuous. You haven't done anything to hurt yourself even more, have you?' The dragon opened his eyes and looked at me like I was stupid.

I held my hands up in surrender and backed away from him, taking the basket off of my shoulders so I could dump the contents onto the ground. I grimaced at the sound of raw fish slapping against each other. Despite everything I had seen since becoming Gothi's student, and despite being one of the few food sources available on Berk, I was still barely able to stomach the sight and smell of raw fish. This was especially true for me since Toothless decided he wanted to feed both me and Hiccup. I still felt sick just thinking about it.

Watched as Colossus dove happily into the pile of fish, taking his momentary distraction to look over his wounds, and found, to my relief, that he had taken the time I was away from him to clean the wounds I hadn't been able to get at the night before. Thankfully, I didn't think there'd be any permanent damage, I doubted he would even scar. Which made me realise that he hadn't been caught in the trap for that long when I had found him. Stepping closer to him, I realised that he had several long, thin scars already lining his body. During the day, the thin white scars were easily noticed against his dark, green scales.

I reached out and ran a hesitant hand along one of the old scars, pausing for a brief moment when Colossus chuffed, thinking I had done something to offend him. But when he didn't do anything to stop me, I continued my inspection, and realised that the claws looked very similar to the dragon claw marks on some of the more seasoned Vikings.

'What happened to you?' I wondered aloud. Colossus snorted at my comment and shifted, turning to look at me with a long, black and yellow eel hanging from his mouth. I laughed at the sight. 'Attractive.' I commented. He rolled his eyes and went back to his pile of fish.

I left him alone to finish his food, and made myself comfortable at the base of one of the trees in our little clearing, watching as the dragon ate away quite happily. Finally getting my first chance to sit down and do nothing since Gobber woke me this morning, I let myself relax. Closing my eyes, I smiled as the few sun rays poking out from behind the clouds, warmed my skin. I felt myself relax even further, and I let out a loud yawn.

I could fall asleep here very happily.

I opened an eye, and smiled when I saw my dragons head burrowed into the now empty basket, looking for more food. Shaking my head in amusement, I let my eye close, and decided that a short nap wouldn't hurt me. When I woke up, then I'd go looking for Hiccup.

* * *

'Hazel? Hazel, you need to wake up.' I groaned and tried batting away the hand shaking me. I heard a laugh. 'Come on Sunshine, you can't stay here all night.'

'Go away Hiccup!' I mumbled. I tried rolling over, but a weight on my stomach stopped me from moving. Groaning, I lifted my head, and through half-opened eyes, I managed to make out two orange orbs blinking up at me. I groaned, and flopped back down onto my back, flinging an arm over my eyes to block out the dying sun.

'Up you get lazy bones!' Hiccup cheered, lifting my arm off my face so that he could look down at me. 'We have things to do before it gets too dark!'

'What?' I groaned, glaring up at him as I inwardly cursed at how his green eyes seemed to sparkle in the low sun.

'You're going to help me and Toothless fly!' He grinned toothily. I groaned again, but pushed away his face with my hand, and ignoring his yelps of protest, managed to get Colossus to lift his head off me.

'Don't be angry at me!' I scolded the dragon when he growled huffily at me. 'Blame him.' I nodded at Hiccup. 'He's the one who woke me up.' The dragon turned his frustration on Hiccup and blew a cloud of smoke at his face, making Hiccup break out into a coughing fit.

'Hazel!' He complained through a fit of coughs.

'What?' I asked innocently, pretending I didn't see what just happened as I brushed the dirt off the back of my legs.

'You know exactly what!' He said, finally catching his breath.

'You sure about that?' I tried hiding a smug smile as I went to grab the empty basket of fish Colossus had thrown to the other side of the clearing. Probably when he realised there wasn't any more fish.

'H-h-hey! I saw that! You knew that was going to happen!' Hiccup cried, hurrying to stay by my side as he shoved a finger in my face, pointing at the now full blown grin that had appeared on my lips.

'Actually, I didn't know what he was going to do.' I shot back, pushing his finger away from my face and reaching down to grab the basket.

'But you knew he'd do something!' I shrugged when I straightened out, strapping the basket to my back. I fought back a laugh when I realised Hiccup had both hands on his hips, and was trying to look serious as he stared me down.

'So, what if I did?' I challenged, crossing my arms over my chest.

'He could have bit me! He could have set me on fire!' He exclaimed, waving his arms above his head.

'But he didn't.' I noted, poking him in the chest as I stepped closer to him.

'But he could have!' Hiccup's eyes looked abnormally wide in that moment.

'Well, if he had, I would have had words with him.' I replied, standing my ground.

'You would have had words with him?' Hiccup looked at me in disbelief.

'Yes.' I nodded. 'I don't particularly like it when someone hurts my best friend.'

'And how exactly would that conversation go?' He asked, stepping even closer to me. I was now having to look up at him to be able to keep eye contact.

'It wouldn't be much of a conversation, but I probably would have scolded him. But then I would have found some way to punish him.' He raised an eyebrow.

'Really?' I nodded once.

'Of course!' I exclaimed, feeling slightly offended that he would doubt me. 'I mean, I wouldn't run back to the tribe to tell them I found a downed dragon, and then let them take care of him. But I would still find a way to punish him. Like I said, I don't like it when someone hurts you.'

'You were serious about that?' His expression had softened, and he was now looking at me in happy disbelief. I frowned.

'Well, yeah. I love you.' He blinked in surprise.

'You do?' I nodded, ignoring the swarm of butterflies that had erupted in my stomach.

'Well, yeah! I wouldn't eat a raw fish covered in dragon slime for just anyone. You're my best friend Hiccup, at this point I'd even die for you.' His shoulders slumped forward, and I managed to catch the disappointment that flashed in his eyes before they hardened.

'Right, friends.' He muttered, stepping away from me.

'Best friends.' I corrected, tilting my head in concern. 'Hiccup, are you alright?' He nodded sharply and stepped around me, before stomping away. 'Hiccup, what's wrong with you?' I asked, rushing after him and grabbed his arm before he could completely disappear. 'What did I say?'

'Just best friends? Is that all we are?' He spun round to look at me. His expression hard.

'Well, yeah. I mean-'

'Because if that's all we are then great! Perfect even!' He interrupted me, stepping closer and lowering his head so that he could look at me properly 'Because I was under the impression that it was changing, and that it had been for a while. I know I didn't always make it obvious, but I also thought that in the last couple months you-' He broke off and pursed his lips, taking a deep breath through his nose before straightening up.

'I what, Hiccup?' I asked, my voice hard despite how fast my heart was racing.

'I thought you liked me too.' The silence in the clearing was deafening. I stared unblinkingly up at Hiccup, as he stared down at me, looking just as surprised as I felt at what had come out of his mouth. I barely even registered Colossus looking between us curiously, crooning worriedly as he, like me, waited to see what happened next.

'I do like you.' I admitted, my voice barely louder than a whisper. Hiccup sighed loudly, his shoulders slumping even further as he ran a hand through his hair.

'But not in the same way.' I blinked, trying to figure out if he was joking or not.

'Hiccup, I don't-'

'No, it's alright, I get it.' He interrupted, shrugging half-heartedly. 'You don't see me the same way, don't worry about.'

'Hiccup, listen-'

'If I were you, I wouldn't like me.'

'Hiccup, please-'

'Who'd ever want to be stuck with me?'

'Hiccup-'

'I get it, really I do. You don't have to explain it to me Hazel. I'm not a real Viking, no matter what you say about me being hard headed or stubborn. I'll never be able to protect you, or provide for you like the rest of men in the tribe. I'm completely Useless.' By this point I was ready to pull my hair out. 'You'd be better off with someone like Snotlout. Someone who could-'

'Oh, for god's sake.' I muttered to myself, finally having enough. I rolled my eyes as Hiccup continued rambling, and grabbed hold of the collar of his vest, finally grabbing his attention and getting him to shut up. 'You're an idiot.' I stated.

Then I pulled him down so that his face was level with mine, and kissed him.

* * *

 **A/N - Sooo this happened.**

 **I'm not too keen on this chapter, but I hope you all liked it anyway. Remember, I'm always happy to hear from you guys.**

 **To MMM - Once again, I can't answer any questions without giving too much away. But I will say, I don't want to delve too far into the cliché's, so who knows what will happen, as I will probably bring out more** **cliché's than I actually want to have.**

 **I'll try to update soon, I'm already working on the next chapter, so hopefully it will be up in time for Christmas, as a little present for being so amazing. Let me know what you guys think, and I'll try to upload soon.**

 **xxxWelshGirl4Lifexxx**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N - I Do Not Own How To Train Your Dragon**

* * *

Despite knowing how he felt about me, I couldn't help the surge of relief that flooded me, barely noticeable next to the elation that rose inside me when Hiccup kissed me back. I felt my legs weaken when he pulled me closer to him, one arm wrapping itself around my waist, while his other hand threaded itself into my hair.

But despite how happy I felt in that moment, and how happy I would have been to continue kissing my best friend and long-time crush, Colossus clearly had different ideas. He whacked Hiccup over his head with his tail, huffing pointedly when Hiccup let go of me to cry out in surprise, his hand rubbing at his sore head.

'Really?' He cried. Colossus huffed in response and wrapped his tail around my waist, pulling me away from Hiccup and to his side, and lowered his head down to my shoulder as he snarled at Hiccup. 'You've known her for a day! I've known her for two years! At least let me kiss her before you take her from me!'

I laughed, but despite how much I found it funny that Hiccup was arguing with a dragon, I couldn't stop my cheeks from heating up at the fact that I was the reason he was arguing with the dragon in the first place.

I managed to untangle myself from Colossus while he was still huffing and growling at Hiccup, who was still doing his best to argue with the dragon. Still laughing, I scratched Colossus under his chin, finally taking his attention away from Hiccup as he cooed in pleasure, tilting his head up even further so that I had more access to his neck.

'Oh, see! Now that, that right there is going to give him ideas!' I grinned at Hiccup, finding it amusing how worked up he was getting. 'He's going to think he can get away with everything now! I thought you said you wouldn't let him hurt me!'

'Okay firstly, I'm not going to let him get away with everything.' I started, stepping away from Colossus, who whimpered in disappointment as I stopped scratching him. 'Secondly, I'd be very upset with him if he hurt you. But since he didn't hurt you, I didn't have to do anything to punish him.'

'He hit me over the head!' Hiccup protested, glaring at the dragon behind me.

'But he didn't kill you!' Hiccup's jaw dropped as he stared at me.

'I have to be dead before you tell him off?'

'Near enough.' I shrugged, smirking as Hiccup stepped closer to me, a finger pointing at my face.

'Okay that? That has to stop.' I reared back in mock surprise, my smirk growing.

'Stop what?'

'That!' He exclaimed, getting close enough for me to be able to see the small, white scar on the right side of his chin in perfect detail. 'Th-that, right there! It's like you enjoy seeing me in pain!'

'That is so not true!' I protested, trying to look serious, but still couldn't help the giggle that burst free.

'I think you're lying.' Hiccup pressed, reaching out to grab me by my hips. Holding me in place as he shuffled even closer, leaning down so that his forehead was only a few millimetres away from mine.

I hummed thoughtfully, pretending to think about his accusation as I let my hands rest against his chest. Looking up into his forest green eyes, I couldn't help but smile. The butterflies in my stomach, that hadn't really left since before our kiss, only seemed to double in ferocity when Hiccup smiled back at me. I leant up and gave him a quick peck on the lips, before successfully pulling myself out of his reach.

'Oh, come on! Really?' Hiccup complained. I laughed as I gave Colossus one last scratch, before grabbing Hiccups hand and pulling him towards the ridge.

'You can complain later.' I chided. 'But right now, you have a dragon we need to get into the air. Or had you forgotten about that?'

* * *

Hiccup, once remembering the reason for looking for me in the first place, led me to the forge. Where, after making sure that I was sat a decent distance away from anything that could cause me any serious damage (despite me arguing that I hadn't been all that clumsy lately, and that maybe I was getting better at keeping myself from harm), he got straight to work.

I watched as he made himself a leather belt, and attached a smaller rope of leather with a small, metal hoop on one end, that would then loop around the hook that had been added to Toothless' recently crafted saddle.

'You really think that's going to keep you in the saddle?' I asked sceptically, as we hurried back through the forest towards his and Toothless' cove, trying to stay out of sight of any Viking who may have decided to take a stroll through the forest.

'It should do.' Hiccup shrugged, moving to rest the saddle on a nearby rock, so that he could make sure that I didn't fall face first down the steep path, that would then lead towards the boulders hiding the entrance to the secret cove.

'Why do you even need it anyway?' I asked once I had steadied myself beside him.

'When we were flying earlier, I misjudged the direction his prosthetic was meant to be in, and fell off the saddle when Toothless lost control.' I snorted at the mental image that comment conjured up. Hiccup picked up the saddle once more, and began to lead the way down the path. 'See, this is why I think you like seeing me in pain!'

'I don't!' I protested, following closely behind him as we navigated the hidden path. 'I just think it's pretty cute how frustrated you get when you do get hurt.'

'You think I'm cute?' He asked, stopping mid-step to turn and look back at me. A smug smile pulling at his lips.

'Keep moving.' I said, pushing him forward.

'I don't hear you denying it!' He called back to me, I rolled my eyes and resisted the temptation to throw a rock at his head. He was never going to let me live that down.

I made myself comfortable on one of the many rocks scattered in the cove, and watched in amusement as Hiccup chased Toothless around the cove, trying to strap the saddle onto him with minimal success. I smiled when Toothless tackled Hiccup, sending the two rolling away from the dropped saddle. When the two came to a stop, Toothless was lying on top of Hiccup, crooning happily down at him, while Hiccup tried wiggling himself out from underneath the dragon.

'Hazel?' He called out, tilting his head as well as he could so that he could look at me pleadingly.

'Yes Hiccup?' I asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Do you think you could help me out here?' Toothless turned his head towards me, silently challenging me to ruin their fun.

'Na, you're alright.' I decided, leaning back on my arms to enjoy the last of the sun's rays.

'Hazel!' I laughed when Toothless turned to look down at Hiccup smugly, wiggling obnoxiously where he lay so that he could make himself comfortable.

After a lot of begging and bribing on Hiccup's part, Toothless was finally fitted with the saddle. I sat on the edge of my rock, and watched in amazement as the duo shot into the air, keeping a generally decent pace as Hiccup got used to pulling at the string attached to Toothless prosthetic so that they were able to fly in all manner of directions, and for Toothless' to get used to flying with a human on his back, who was quite literally the entire reason why he was flying in the first place.

They'd fly out of sight every now and again, swooping between the trees above the cove, but would come back within sight every few minutes.

I began to get worried, however, when the two seemed to disappear both from view and hearing. As time seemed to stretch on, my worry began to grow, but just when I was about to scale the rocks to go looking for them. The two once again appeared, Hiccup's hair was sticking up in every direction possible with blades of grass stuck in both his hair and clothes. The ear to ear grin he wore calmed whatever worry I had that something bad had happened, and couple with the pleasantly happy expression on Toothless' face, I guessed they had found something.

'Where were you two?' I asked, feeling cross with the two for scaring me so much.

'We found something!' Hiccup exclaimed, eyes wide with excitement as he dismounted Toothless, going to run towards me only for the rope attached to Toothless' new tail fin pulled him back to the dragons' side. Hiccup stumbled as he tried to regain his balance, but managed to catch himself on the dragon's side before he fell.

'You going to tell me what you found? Or am I gonna have to guess?' I asked, going to help Hiccup undoing the knot he had tied too well.

'Dragon Nip!' He exclaimed, spreading his arms wide as he looked down at me expectantly. I paused in my struggle with the knot to look up at him with a raised eyebrow.

'I'm going to need a bit more than that Hiccup.' I pointed out, going back to pulling at the knot.

'It's like grass, but Toothless loved it! Fell right into the grass when we lost control, I had to drag him away from it.' He explained. I smirked in amusement, looking back up at him once I had finally gotten the knot undone. He rolled his eyes, and sighed in exaggerated irritation. 'There may have been some bribery involved as well.'

I stood up laughing, brushing the dirt off my knees as I did so, then stepped back to let Hiccup remove Toothless' saddle without having me in the way. Toothless didn't look as though he was aware at what Hiccup was doing, and was looking around the cove, moving his head slowly as he tried to take everything in with a dreamy expression on his face.

'I managed to grab a handful before we left.' Hiccup started, taking my attention away from the very happy dragon. 'I want to see if it will work on other dragons.'

'So, you're calling this stuff Dragon Nip, but you don't know if it will work on other species.' He shrugged sheepishly, managing to pull the saddle off Toothless' back.

'Yeah. Kinda. But if it doesn't work on tomorrow's dragon, or Colossus, then I'll call it something else. Maybe Fury Nip.' I snorted.

'Maybe you should keep working on that name.'

'You are so mean to me!' I chose to laugh instead of reply. He shoved me playfully as he walked past me. 'Remind me again why I thought it would be a good idea to kiss you?'

'You like me.' He glared half-heartedly as I perched myself on top of my rock. 'Hey. You could have pushed me away.' He groaned.

'I'm going to regret it, aren't I?' I gasped, holding a hand over my heart as I pretended to be insulted.

'Now whose being mean?' He rolled his eyes, shoving me off my rock as he went to look after his dazed dragon. 'Hey!'

* * *

Word had travelled fast about what happened during the last Dragon Training session (despite not having far to travel), and how Hiccup had successfully defeated the Hiddeous Zippleback, even though no one could work out what had exactly happened. I still hadn't gotten around to asking Hiccup what he had done to the dragon.

But since people were curious as to how the so called "useless" son of the tribe's Chief managed to defeat a dragon, and a double headed one at that, several of the villagers had decided to stop by and watch the day's session. Including Gothi. Who, of course, decided to practically glue herself to my side. I tried shuffling away from the little, old mute lady, wanting to put some space between us. But my mentor ended up following me as I moved away, huffing in annoyance up at me whenever I did, before knocking me over the head with her walking stick.

I scowled down at the arena, rubbing the back of my head as I watched as the Gronckle

was released, sending the teens running in several directions as they tried to confuse the dragon.

'You know, I'm pretty sure that as my boss, you're not actually meant to hurt me.' The little old woman just glared up at me, proving for perhaps the millionth time since I first started working for her, that you didn't need to speak to get your point across. 'You're going to pretend I didn't say anything aren't you?' She turned back to the chaos happening below us, leaning closer to the protective chains to get a better look. 'Of course you are.'

There were times when I wondered why I put up with Gothi, and why I even bothered keeping up with my training when most of my injuries tended to come from her. This was one of those times.

Down below, things didn't seem to be going any better. I winced when the Gronckle headbutted Snotlout, sending him flying into one of the arena walls, his groans still somehow audible from where I was watching on the opposite side of the arena.

I held my breath, when the dragon changed course and made his way towards Hiccup, snarling lowly as his little wings carried him as quickly as possible towards Hiccup, who turned away from the dragon with his arm stretched out so that his clenched fist was level with the dragon's nose. I struggled to keep my eyes open, not wanting to watch my friend get injured, when the Gronckle stopped just before he could collide with Hiccup's fist, and promptly rolled over onto its side when Hiccup rubbed his fist (which I now realised held the Dragon Nip he had collected) along the dragons' snout.

I breathed a sigh of relief when the dragon continued to lay on his side, completely unbothered when Gobber came up to his side and poked him with his hooked hand. The small crowd that had gathered, burst into excited whispers as they tried to work out what had just happened.

I gave Hiccup a double thumbs up when he turned to look at me, grinning broadly at the fact that the Dragon Nip worked. I got a crooked smile and a slight wave in return, before Hiccup turned to follow Gobber, who was now pulling the dazed Gronckle by his tail back to his cage.

Someone tugging at the hem of my tunic dragged my attention away from Gobber, who was now summarising the lesson to the teens now surrounding him. I looked down to find Gothi looking up at me, her face set in a frustrated frown. Realising she now had my attention, she jabbed her walking stick into my chest before pointing towards the bridge that was the only way to and from the training arena. Gothi huffed pointedly when I didn't move, and jabbed between me and the bridge once again.

'I told Hiccup that I'd-' I was interrupted by my mentor whacking me on the head, before jabbing at the bridge again while ignoring my pained cry as I rubbed at my forehead, knowing I was going to have a lovely bright, red mark showing there for the rest of the day. 'For such a tiny person, you can be really mean at times.'

Gothi huffed and waddled off, leaving me to follow along behind, grumbling under my breath the various ways I would destroy that walking stick of hers.

* * *

I had been stuck travelling between Gothi's hut, and the rest of the Viking homes as Gothi sent me on various errands during the day's shift. Running up and down several flights of stairs leading up the steep hill to her hut, plus running all over Berk trying to see patients whilst trying to collect ingredients for various salves (and Gothi's dinner), meant that at the end of my shift, I was practically drenched in sweat and was pretty sure I had lost a lung somewhere between Mildew's hut and the docks.

I had planned on returning home and filling up my wash bucket to try and get the stink off of me, then spend the evening relaxing and perhaps make a decent dinner for once, and then go visit Colossus once night had fallen and every one was asleep. Maybe I would have thrown in a visit to Hiccup and Toothless if I thought they might still be together.

However, Hiccup, in all his genius, thought it would be a good idea if he met me outside Gothi's hut the moment my shift finished, wearing a massive, face splitting grin on his face, and basically dragged me down the rickety with only a shout of greeting to Gothi, and completely ignoring my complaints.

'I was thinking,' he started, letting go of my hand once we were deep enough into the woods that we wouldn't be stopped by a stray Viking. 'Why don't we try get Colossus to Toothless' gorge? That way, neither dragon will be alone while we're not with them.'

'Woah, woah, woah.' I called out, running ahead of him so that he would be looking at me directly. My hands on his chest so that he couldn't go another step. 'Why does Colossus have to be the one to move?'

'Well for one, Toothless still can't fly very far.' He pointed out, shifting the length of rope he had brought with him further up his shoulder.

'And what else?' I pressed.

'Colossus hasn't got the best hiding place.' He said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. 'I mean, it took us hours to find Toothless, and it took you minutes to find Colossus. He's not exactly hiding.'

'It's not like he had a choice.' I stated, crossing my arms over my chest as I glared at him. 'It's not like he decided one day that he wanted to get caught in some barbaric, Viking trap.'

'No, I know! I know, I didn't mean it like that.' Hiccup rushed out, looking panicked as he tried to calm me down. 'I just meant that if a Viking decided to go walking in his direction one day, then they could easily spot him from that overlook point, than if they went for a walk towards the cove. They'd have to know about the path to even reach Toothless.'

'And how exactly are we going to get Colossus to the cove?' Hiccup laughed nervously and shrugged the length of rope from his shoulder, holding it out for me to grab.

'You're going to fly him.'

* * *

 **A/N - I finally have this chapter up! I think I did alright with it, and I hope you all enjoyed it.**

 **MMM - Once again, I can't say anything without giving anything away, you'll have to wait to see. Thank you for the suggestion, however, I already know what I'm going to be doing with the story ark (Hopefully it will work and I don't get stuck). And with how much work I have going on with university and volunteering, I don't really want to start my own spin off series at the moment, I'm going to have to see if I can get through the films and TV shows with relative ease before I even want to think about starting something else, I'm already pushing my luck with writing this story along with editing Sophia Jackson.**

 **Guest - I'm glad you're enjoying my stories, Titan's curse does have an author's note at the end that should explain everything, but basically, I hit writers block with the series and am currently working my way through the stories and re-writing what I've already done. When I had gotten to the Titan's Curse had forgotten what I had already written, along with characters I had introduced and new plot ideas I had started (basically I was just terrible at keeping track of everything), and want to rework several things to be able to continue on with the series. I'm not abandoning it, it will just take a while longer to get to it. Every second chapter I post here, I will have a newly rewritten chapter up in one of the stories. My profile will keep people updated on what's been done and what hasn't. There will be times when I won't upload an edited chapter, mainly because editing isn't really my strong suit, but I will do my best to keep to this plan, and I hope you won't give up with either series just yet.**

 **Thank you so much to everyone else who has reviewed, favourited, and followed, I'm glad you're all enjoying my work. If any of you have any questions, please feel fee to ask in either a review or PM, I will answer as well as I can.**

 **xxxWelshGirl4Lifexxx**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N - I don't own How To Train Your Dragon, anything familiar does not belong to me.**

* * *

'Are you sure this is a good idea?' I asked Hiccup, who was sat directly behind me, his arms wrapped loosely around my waist as we waited for Colossus to get used to the sensation of having someone riding on his back.

Colossus, clearly remembering his time in chains, was not too impressed with us when we had approached with the length of rope. The look of sheer panic on his face broke my heart as he attempted to scramble away from us, seeming to forget in his panic that he had wings that could help him get away a lot faster. I had thrown the rope back into Hiccup's hands and approached Colossus with my hands raised, palms flat, and attempting to speak to the dragon in soothing tones as I tried to explain as well as I could to him that we meant no harm, and that we were only trying to lead him somewhere safer.

He settled enough to let me approach him and rest a gentle hand against his snout, where, using my thumb, I rubbed small circles into his scarred scales as I tried not to startle him by moving too much.

Using slow, and precise movements, I began to guide Colossus over to where Hiccup stood eyeing the dragon carefully with the rope clutched loosely in his hands. Realising where I was leading him, Colossus hissed and opened his mouth in a snarl, the back of his throat glowing with flames, his teeth glinting dangerously in the red light.

It took a long time trying to calm Colossus down enough that he wouldn't try to incinerate Hiccup every time he looked at him, and I was beginning to think that the dragon had some kind of vendetta against Hiccup. It then took even longer for Hiccup and me to help Colossus see that we weren't going to use the rope to hurt him anytime soon, having to resort to miming what we wanted to do when Colossus didn't look as though he understood what was going on.

He had let me tie the rope loosely around his neck, and after making sure that the knot wouldn't be coming loose anytime soon, Hiccup and I let Colossus sulk around the clearing for several minutes, getting used to the make-shift reigns, which, Colossus ended up rolling along his neck several times like some child's hula-hoop trick.

I had managed to coax the gigantic, green dragon close enough to the ground so that there wouldn't be too much scrambling involved in trying to get into place at the base of his neck. And, somehow, from my perch, I had managed to keep him calm enough to allow Hiccup to climb up behind me with minimal fuss.

After enduring through Colossus shifting us from shoulder to shoulder, getting used to the unfamiliar weight on his back, and letting him wander through the clearing, Hiccup had suggested coaxing him into the air.

'He'll be fine.' Hiccup reassured me. 'His wings didn't take any lasting damage, and he always has plenty of energy whenever we stop by. We just need to move that energy into the air.'

'How exactly?' I snapped, my grip on the rope tightening as my nerves started to build to uncomfortable levels.

'Hey, you'll be fine.' Hiccup soothed. 'Just let him know you're ready.' I took deep breathes to try and calm myself down, and tried relaxing my grip on the rope slightly, but found I couldn't bring myself to detach my fingernails from the palms of my hand.

'Alright Colossus,' I cringed inwardly when my voice shook. 'Let's fly.'

My dragon turned his head to look back at us, tilting his head curiously as he studied me carefully, almost as though he was judging the validity of my words. I gave him a nervous smile, which made him croon in confusion, but must have convinced him enough to turn away from me and spread his wings, the tips of which were mere inches away from the trees on either side of the of the clearing.

'I'm not going to like this am I?' I sighed. I felt Hiccup's body shake with laughter.

'You're going to be fiiiiii – oh shi-!'

'Hiccup!' My grip on Colossus' reign growing to extreme levels, as I hunched forward in my seat pushing myself closer to his back as I dug my knees into his sides trying everything in my power to stop myself from falling off. Hiccup's arms around my waist tightened, and he had been forced closer to me during take-off so that he didn't go toppling off the side as well.

It turns out that Colossus' size wasn't the only thing that separated him from the other dragons.

Take off for Colossus meant breathing molten hot fire down at the ground, giving him more power to reach higher heights, as we flew in fast circles in the enclosed space, before shooting off at an incredible speed in whichever direction took his fancy.

'Get him to slow down!' Hiccup shouted in my ear, barely audible against the harsh wind buffeting us.

'How?' I screamed back, eyes welling up with tears in the cold wind. My hair escaping its ties and was whipping around our faces in a frenzy, catching me in the eyes several times When we landed I was going to cut it all off.

'He's your dragon!' I groaned at the reply.

'That doesn't help!' I tried pulling back on the reigns, vaguely remembering the few horse riding lessons I had when I was younger, but got no response. I didn't think Colossus even remembered the rope was there anymore. 'Colossus please! Slow down!' I tried. But again, nothing. 'Colossus!'

I'm not sure whether he heard the panic in my scream, or if he only just remembered that Hiccup and I were still sat on his back, but Colossus managed to pull the dragon equivalent of an emergency stop mid-air, causing Hiccup and I to slide several inches out of our seat and down his neck. His giant, green wings flapped noiselessly in the air as we hovered, the dragon looking back towards us curiously.

'Next time, maybe try a bit slower, yeah?' I suggested, panting heavily as I looked at the puppy equivalent of dragons. I brushed aside several strands of hair from my face. 'Just to be on the safe side.' Colossus crooned in confusion and tilted his head as he watched us.

'Shall we try again?' Hiccup suggested. I turned my head slowly, looking incredulously at my best friend who just sat looking between me and my dragon with wide, excited eyes. 'Well?'

* * *

Hiccup got his wish, and we tried again.

Granted, we didn't have much of a choice. We were hovering over the ocean, several miles away from Berks nearest coast line, with no other option of where to go. Colossus however, did listen to my pleads of dropping his speed, and even let me direct him towards the cove, where Toothless was instantly on guard at seeing the humongous dragon. Hiccup basically fell from Colossus' back in his hurry to calm down the growling dragon, who, in turn, set Colossus on edge.

As I climbed down from his back, Colossus wrapped his tail around my legs and pulled me closer to his side, towering over me as he growled and hissed at the black dragon. It was a combined effort between me and Hiccup to try and calm the dragons down to introduce them properly.

It almost ended in complete disaster, when Colossus, with his never-ending issues with Hiccup, hissed in warning at him when Hiccup tried approaching my giant dragon in an attempt to show Toothless that he wouldn't cause any harm. Toothless, of course, hadn't liked this, and had instantly pulled my best friend behind him, plasma glowing at the back of his throat in warning as he prepared to fire at my dragon.

Thus starting Hiccup's lecture to the dragon's when he managed to pull himself away from Toothless to stand between the two grumpy dragons. I had to admit, Hiccup had some serious guts.

Hiccup's impromptu lecture resulted in a grudging truce between the dragons. The two kept a respectable distance from each other, never taking their eyes off of either Hiccup or myself whenever we moved too far away from them, making sure that neither of us got hurt by the other dragon.

When he was more relaxed, Toothless had decided that he was in desperate need of Hiccup's attention and had pushed himself between me and Hiccup while we had been sat talking, and rubbed himself all over his trainer to get him to scratch him. Laughing, Hiccup attempted to tackle the dragon, before finally giving into his demands and scratching along the dragon's head, causing him to purr in happiness. Toothless tilted his head to follow Hiccup's hand, refusing to let him drop his hand for even a second. I giggled at the look of contentment on his face.

Colossus crooned sadly from behind me, I rolled my eyes and turned to look at the sulking dragon, who was now looking between me and the other two as they had fun, his eyes wide and pleading.

'You're still in time out.' I warned, pointing a finger at him. His eyes widened further as he tried to up his begging game. 'That doesn't work on me.' I stated, crossing my arms to emphasise my point. He crooned again, and shuffled over to me on his belly. 'I will scratch you when you learn that it's wrong to try and cook my friends!'

Colossus huffed and turned away from me, using one of his wings to hide himself from me. I rolled my eyes again. He was such a drama queen. I turned back to Hiccup and Toothless just in time to see Toothless fall to the ground with a heavy thump, his eyes closed and a happy little smile on his face as he purred loudly. I looked at Hiccup in bewilderment as he smiled excitedly at me.

'You going to explain or do I have to guess?' I questioned, lifting a single eyebrow. Hiccup's smile widened.

* * *

The next day in dragon training, the Nadder had been brought back out, and Astrid was putting in 110% to be the one who brought the dragon down. The dragon however, was refusing to take things lying down, and was putting up a bigger fight that it had the last time it had been released. Clearly dragons were big on the whole grudge thing.

The crowd watching today's lesson had grown even further, and I was almost certain that everyone left on the island had made the trek down to the arena to watch the proceedings. You feel the excitement in the air as the tribe came together to watch the teens fight their way through training. As I had made my way into position before the session had even started, I had passed a few of the older Vikings and had overheard them reminiscing of their times in dragon training, and were showing off old scars to anyone who were unfortunate to be sat close by.

Talk of the teens impending graduation also filled the air, with bets being placed as to who would be the one to make their first kill in front of the tribe. A pit formed in my stomach when I heard several Vikings betting that Hiccup would be the one to take on the Monstrous Nightmare, making me realise just how close graduation was, and that neither Hiccup nor I could come up with a plan to get him out of these training sessions. And with the way he was going, Hiccup was going to be the one to face off with the Nightmare.

Gothi had given me a stern look when I had shown up later than usual to the arena, only shaking her head when I stumbled over an excuse for being late. Hiccup and I had spent most of the night with the dragons, neither of us wanting to leave them alone for too long until they had gotten used to each other. We had finally taken the risk, and had decided to leave them be during the early hours of the morning when we realised we needed to have at least a few hours' sleep before dragon training. But of course, I ended up oversleeping by the tiniest amount, and of course Gothi was going to make sure that I would pay for it later on.

The Deadly Nadder screeching down on the arena floor brought me out of my musings. I turned back to the match down below just in time to see Astrid throw her axe at the Nadder. For one, heart stopping moment, I thought that she was going to cause some serious damage to the dragon, but thankfully the Nadder was able to use its head spikes to brush aside the axe like it was nothing. I managed to hold back my sigh of relief when the Nadder then took off after Astrid, not appreciating being almost killed, forcing the girl to dive out of the way before she could become dragon chow, and unfortunately leaving Hiccup to become the Nadder's next target.

I bit my tongue to make sure I didn't curse at my friend, when instead of running, he just dropped his mace and just stood there as the furious Nadder approached. My heart was beating wildly in my chest when the Nadder, clearly confused by the young Viking's decision to not attack, decided to cautiously sniff Hiccup. My heart started to slow down when I realised that the dragon wasn't putting up a fight, when of course, Astrid decided to come along and ruin it for everyone.

Shouting at the top of her lungs, Astrid came barrelling out of nowhere, her axe raised above her head as she charged at the dragon. The Nadder, instantly on guard, turned away from Hiccup, it's tail spikes standing outright as it prepared itself for the attack.

Thankfully, Hiccup was developing the ability to think quickly on his feet, and using his recently discovered knowledge, managed to bring the Nadder to the ground, just as he had done with Toothless the day before. The crowd erupted in cheers at the sight of the downed dragon, and I couldn't help but smirk when Astrid skidded to a stop above the dragon, axe frozen in mid-air as she looked between Hiccup and the dragon in horrified confusion.

* * *

'Is it wrong that I loved watching you humiliate Astrid?' I asked Hiccup when he had come to pick me up from after my shift, my fingers laced through his as we made our way from Gothi's hut to the Great Hall.

'I didn't humiliate her!' He protested, bumping his shoulder against mine.

'In Astrid's mind, you did.' I pointed out, pulling my hand from his as I flung my arms into the air and doing a little pirouette away from him as I grinned. 'And it was glorious!'

'You're in a good mood tonight.' Hiccup commented, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me back to his side.

'It's been a good day.' I shrugged, my own arm wrapping itself around Hiccup. 'Our dragons didn't kill each other, Gothi complimented me on my work, you didn't die in Dragon Training, and Astrid got humiliated! As far as I'm concerned, any day where the person who hurt my best friend gets hurt, is a good day regardless of what else happens.'

'Best friend?' Hiccup asked, pulling us to a stop and turning us both so that we could look each other in the eye.

'What's wrong with that?' I asked, lifting an eyebrow as I waited for his response.

'W-well I j-just thought – I-I mean that we – well we'

'Kissed?' I supplied for him, trying to bite back a smile as he stumbled over his words. He nodded clumsily. 'We did kiss, yes. But I don't remember making anything official.' I shrugged, stepping closer to him and looping my arms around his neck.

'Official?' Hiccup asked stupidly, his own arms automatically wrapping themselves around my waist. I nodded, allowing a small smile to grow.

'You haven't asked me out.' His eyes widened as he finally realised what I talking about.

'I-I-I haven't?' I shook my head. 'I thought it would have been obvious.'

'What would have been obvious?' I asked, feigning confusion as I cocked my head to the side.

'That I want to be your boyfriend!' I grinned widely at his declaration, giggling when his eyes widened even further as he realised just how loudly he had announced this.

'Well then, it's a good thing I want to be your girlfriend.' I laughed when he reeled back, looking completely baffled by what had just escaped my mouth. I reached up and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, before pulling away from him completely and continued to make my way to the Great Hall. 'You coming?' I called back to Hiccup when I realised he hadn't moved.

I waited for him to catch up with me, quickly stepping out of reach from his hands when he reached out to tickle me in retaliation to my little trick. We managed to make our way to the Great Hall, despite Hiccup's attempts to tickle me into insanity, and my attempts to trip him up. We were still laughing and joking around when we entered the Great Hall, but fell silent when we realised that many of the Vikings already in the hall were sat watching us, including Snotlout, Astrid, Fishlegs and the Twins.

Chuckling nervously, Hiccup grabbed my hand and led us over to the empty table near the teens, where there were two meals already set out waiting for us. We had barely sat down, the two of us sitting across from each other at the far end of the table, when the Twins, Snotlout, and Fishlegs came barrelling over to us, along with half the hall, shouting questions at Hiccup about Dragon Training.

A thump from the table next to us drew my attention away from watching Hiccup get quickly overwhelmed by the horde of Vikings, none of them listening to either of our protests or our insisting that they leave us to finish our meals. I found Astrid glaring over at Hiccup and the fawning Vikings, her hand tightly clutching at her cup, and couldn't help the pleased smirk that crept onto my face when I realised she was jealous. My smirk grew into a full-blown grin when she realised I was watching her. I lifted my own cup up in a toast, ignoring the glare that hardened as she tried to stare me down.

I turned back to Hiccup who smiled sheepishly at me when he caught my eye. My smile softened. While I didn't like the reason behind Hiccup's sudden popularity, I was glad that people were no longer treating him as an outcast. Maybe things were looking up after all.

* * *

The next morning, Hiccup and I were once again spending time with our dragons in the cove. Colossus, as it turned out, loved getting his belly scratched, and tended to get huffy with me when I'd stop suddenly to talk to Hiccup, and would do everything he could to make sure that my attention returned to him so that I could continue rubbing his belly. Realising what he was doing, I eventually turned it into a game between the two of us, and when he least expected it, would stopped scratching his belly and would try to run away from him as far as I could before he pulled me back to his side. I usually got a face full of smoke every time I did it, but I couldn't help but laugh at his grumpy expression every time I pulled away from him.

Hiccup and I were pleased to discover that both Colossus and Toothless actually got along, despite their first meeting. Being close to a lake, Colossus had taken up hunting for his own food, which meant that I didn't need to bring as much fish with me whenever I came to visit. What surprised Hiccup and I however, was the fact that Colossus had also taken to bringing Toothless fish as well. While it didn't make them the best of friends, the fact that the two were willing to help each other was a massive improvement.

I gave up my little game when the need for air became too much to ignore. I sat down heavily next to Colossus, trying to even out my breathing, and regretting ever deciding to play with the dragon the size of Jupiter. I ignored the dragon's grumblings when I pushed his head away from my lap, wanting a moment to myself to cool down.

I watched as Hiccup and Toothless started up their own game, when Hiccup quickly realised that Toothless had developed some interest in the circle of light that reflected off of hammer that Hiccup had brought to fix Toothless' tail. I laughed as Toothless began chasing the spot of light that Hiccup directed around the cove, grumbling in confusion whenever the light seemed to escape from his grasp.

Watching Toothless' reminded me of the video's I'd watch of cats who'd chase lasers around their owner's room's. That brief memory of my old home caused my smile to fall, as I let my memories run wild over the happy memories that now felt painful.

I let my hand rest between Colossus' horns as he managed to worm his head onto my lap. I let myself look over at Hiccup, who looked so happy as he played with his dragon, that the pain from my memories seemed to slowly melt away.

For the rest of the morning, I was content to spend time with my best friend and our dragons.

* * *

That afternoon, I found myself down on the arena floor with my back against the wall as I tried to stay as close to Gobber as possible. The teens were being introduced to a new dragon today, but Gobber assured me that it was perfectly safe to join them on the main floor, instead of watching up above with the rest of the crowd and well out of the way of the fire breathing animal who would more than likely be very agitated at being stuck inside it's cage for so long.

I glanced nervously at Hiccup, who was looking more confident standing amongst his classmates, a complete change to how he had appeared during the first session. Seeing him look so determined that he would quite easily be able to subdue whatever was about to be released, without causing the dragon or anyone else, bodily harm, made me feel a little better about being down on the main floor with them. Not much mind you, I was still scared of the prospect of being barbequed alive.

'Meet, the Terrible Terror!' Gobber announced, opening the cage door.

The arena fell silent as the teens looked at the cage doors in confusion, it was only when they heard the confused chirps of perhaps the cutest looking dragon (excluding Colossus and Toothless) that I had ever seen. The tiny green dragon's eyes narrowed when the teens, minus Hiccup, scoffed and laughed at its size.

'It's like the size of my –' I, along with the gathered crowd, burst into fits of laughter when the Terrible Terror attached itself to Tuffnut's nose. Cutting off whatever vulgar comment he had been about to sprout, and causing him to let out a very girlish scream, one that I am sure he will deny ever making.

He somehow managed to get the feisty little dragon off his nose, giving himself enough time to run over to the other teens who had scattered when the tiny dragon attacked. I rolled my eyes, and followed after him, needing to make sure that he was alright lest I incur Gothi's wrath.

I had just finished placing a small white bandage across Tuffnut's nose, when the crowd erupted into cheers. When I turned from Tuffnut, Hiccup was stop by the large wooden gate, his foot propped up against the small door the Terrible Terror used, holding his shield in his hand awkwardly as he looked over us with a sheepish grin.

* * *

'C'mon, hurry!' Hiccup called back to me as we ran through the forest, dodging trees, rocks, and foliage as we went.

'Why are we rushing?' I questioned, panting heaving as I tried to keep up with him. Where that boy got his energy from, I had no idea.

'We can't be seen!' He protested, stopping briefly for me to catch up with him, before continuing at a fast walk. 'You never know who might see us.'

'Who, in their right mind, would be willing to spend time out here? We're not exactly in our right minds Hiccup.' I rushed out, interrupting whatever he had been about to say. 'We've both somehow managed to adopt dragons, which, I don't think you've noticed, isn't exactly the most normal thing to do around here. Especially when the whole island is devoted to killing them.'

'We could run into a hunting party.' He pointed out. I nodded thoughtfully.

'Usually, yes. But considering the islands remaining hunters went out this morning, and have already came back with their kill, it's highly unlikely we'll meet them again. Face it Hiccup, we're alone out here.'

The moment I finished speaking, a dull thud echoed through the forest, soon followed by a frustrated shout. Hiccup and I shared quick, cautious glance, before slowing right down and crept out of the brush, right into one of Astrid's training sessions. We held our breaths when we managed to go unnoticed, and tried remaining out of sight as we made our way to the cove's hidden path. But of course, remaining out of Astrid's sight was too much to ask, as I managed to stumble over a hidden ditch and crashed into Hiccup, who then stepped on several sticks as he tried to catch his balance.

Astrid turned to us, her axe raised high and poised to through at us. The murderous snarl she had on her face, quickly turned to a look of confusion as she looked between me, Hiccup, and Toothless' new prosthetic in Hiccup's arms. Thankfully he had, had the foresight to wrap it up tightly, so that you couldn't tell what he was carrying.

I waved awkwardly, attempting to seem as casual as possible, before grabbing a handful of Hiccup's vest, and yanking him away from Astrid's view, and back down the direction we were originally aiming for. Hearing Astrid beginning to take chase, we picked up the pace, and somehow managed to outrun her, and get to safety before she could discover our secret.

We fell against the wall of the cove, giggling in relief over what had just happened.

'I though you said we were alone out here?' Hiccup asked, still laughing.

'Oh, shut up.' I rolled my eyes, hitting him playfully on the arm and making my way over to Colossus, who, since we had entered the cove, hadn't stopped wagging his tail. His eye's wide with excitement as I approached.

Colossus and I lounged quite happily in the sun together, his head resting on my stomach, as I leant back against a boulder, dozing in the sun as Hiccup managed to wrestle the new prosthetic onto Toothless' tail.

I opened my eyes long enough to watch Hiccup attach one end of the length of rope we had left here after our flight with Colossus, to Toothless' saddle, while the other end he wrapped around a tree stump. One he had gotten Toothless used to flying in place, the wind being a big help to him keeping his balance, I settled back down for a nap.

Only a few minutes had past when I heard a crash, soon followed by a pained groan and a confused croon. Colossus and I lifted our heads to see what happened, and found that both Hiccup and Toothless had vanished. Jumping to my feet, I ran over to where I last saw them. The steady thumps behind me, indicated that Colossus was following along closely.

I hurried up the grass knoll, and found Toothless and Hiccup amongst the trees, several feet away from the tree stump, looking, thankfully, unharmed, with Hiccup pulling on the strap he used to keep himself in the saddle.

'Are you two okay?' I asked. Hiccup looked up, his face set in complete panic, while Toothless just looked on in confusion.

'We're fine.' He admitted, then seemed to think about it for a second longer, then shrugged. 'For now, anyway.'

'What do you mean?' I frowned in confusion, looking over the two carefully, but seeing nothing to worry about.

'I'm kinda stuck to Toothless.' My eyes went wide. Beside me Colossus huffed then walked away. Well, at least one of us was calm.

* * *

We had to wait until it had turned dark, before attempting to smuggle Toothless into the village. Colossus hadn't been too happy that we were taking Toothless out on a field trip, while he stayed behind and waited for us to return.

The path to the forge had mostly been clear, we only encountered one person, but that had thankfully been when we had just come out of the forest, and had rounded the corner of my house, so we were able to make it look like we were just chatting before turning in for the night, when patrol went past.

'Hiccup, Hazel.' The Viking had greeted. We nodded casually, and waited for him to walk out of sight before pulling the curious Toothless out from behind the barrels I kept beside my house. I made a mental note to remember to return them to Gobber sometime in the next week.

We managed to get to the forge without making too much noise, but once in the forge, Hiccup had been unable to stop any of the clanging as he tried to separate himself from the Toothless' saddle. This, unfortunately, brought the attention of Astrid, who had been just as confused to see me standing outside the forge so late, as she was to hear someone working inside.

'What are you doing here?' She asked suspiciously, trying to look behind me into the forge. 'Is that Hiccup?'

'Who?' I mentally slapped myself for panicking. She brought her eyes back to mine, looking just as confused as I'd just said. Thankfully, Hiccup chose that moment to jump through the window behind me and slam it shut.

A quick glance down told me that he was still attached to Toothless' saddle.

'H-hey, Astrid. Hey! How's it going? You doing alright?' I tried to smile pleasantly at the blonde, hoping that it looked like Hiccup's questions were perfectly normal, Hiccup doing the same by leaning back against the forge window and crossing his arms over his chest.

'I normally don't care what people do,' Astrid started, looking weirdly at me and Hiccup. 'But you two, are acting weird.' At that, Hiccup was jerked back into the window shutters, making them shudder violently from the force. 'Well, weirder. What's going on?'

Before either of us could answer, Hiccup was lifted off the ground, and up against the window shutters, before a violent tug pulled him through the window. I turned back to Astrid, knowing my eyes had gone abnormally wide as I tried to stay calm and not burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation.

'What just happened?' She asked, looking startled as she looked between me and the place Hiccup had just been standing.

'Training.' I answered immediately, nodding as if that would make me sound more truthful.

Astrid scoffed and shoved me aside to open the shutters, getting a good look at the empty forge. She looked back at me in disbelief, but I just smiled.

'See, training.' I waited to see if she'd say anything else, but she just continued staring so I decided to take my leave. 'Good night!'

It took me walking away for her to say anything.

'I will find out what's going on.' She called out. I thought it best that I didn't reply.

* * *

 **A/N - I have finally gotten this chapter up, which is a massive relief! The next chapter will probably be a while again, I'm going away with my uni on the 27th for a sort of holiday/assignment thing, so will be gone for about a week with that. But I also have to get a presentation sorted out for it before we go, along with one other assignment which is due while away. And I also have several other assignments that are needing to be finished by the end of Easter, so I probably won't have time to start writing until about mid to late April, so I hope you all won't be too upset with me.**

 **Let me know what you think of this chapter!**

 **xxxWelshGirl4Lifexxx**


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